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Any Moment, Trump Heads to Walter Reed for Medical Visit; Israeli Military Says, Ceasefire in Effect as Troops Pull Back in Gaza; New York Attorney General Letitia James Indicted After Trump Pressure Campaign. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired October 10, 2025 - 10:00   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: Happening now, an unusual semi-annual exam. President Trump will soon head to Walter Reed. What we're learning about his visit to the health facility for the second time this year.

Plus, quote, desperate weaponization of our justice system. That's the message from New York Attorney General Letitia James after she was indicted on federal felony charges.

And ceasefire now in effect, the Israeli military says its forces are pulling back from Gaza. And thousands are now trekking back to Gaza City. What we're learning about the role U.S. troops will play in the plan's implementation.

Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Pamela Brown. Wolf Blitzer on assignment, and you are in The Situation Room.

Happening now, President Trump will soon head to Walter Reed Medical Center. This will be his second visit there this year. The White House originally described this as a, quote, a yearly checkup, but then the president later clarified that this would be a routine semi-annual exam.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: I think I'm in great shape, but I'll let you know. But, no, I have no difficulty thus far. Is there wood around here? I'll knock on it. No difficulty. Physically, I feel very good. Mentally, I feel very good. You know, I did about six, seven months ago, I do physicals. I like to -- when I'm around, I like to check always early, always be early. It's a lesson for a lot of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: The president is also expected to visit troops at Walter Reed. And then after his visit, he'll return to the White House before a trip to the Middle East. Israel's police says that he's expected to visit Israel on Monday to talent his ceasefire agreement. For more on President Trump's visit to Walter Reed, I want to bring in scene and chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta. So, Sanjay, the president had a routine exam back in April. Is it surprising to you that he's going back so soon?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You know, it is somewhat surprising. I mean, you think of these as annual physicals and people will sometimes get visits, other visits if there's something that they're trying to address or there's some concern.

I will give you this backdrop as well, Pam. As you may know, the White House Medical Unit within the White House, it's a pretty robust unit. There's a lot of things they can do there as well in terms of more regular monitoring for things that are less serious. What they can't do is more sophisticated imaging, like C.T.s or MRI scans. Those are the sort of things that, you know, someone would get at Walter Reed.

But, you know, he has done this before where he is had more than one checkup through the years. Go back to his first term, you may remember he had a checkup one year, and then about a year later, 13 months later, he had another checkup in February of 2019. Then he had that visit to Walter Reed, Pamela, you may remember in November. That was an unannounced visit. We weren't told necessarily what that was all about, just that he had that visit, and then again in June of 2020.

My point being that he has had a sort of more rapid or frequent cadence of visits in the past as well.

BROWN: Yes. And he said, look, it's important to go early. We know there have been these pictures of Trump's bruised hands, his swollen ankles. How concerning are they and what do you think about his point of, hey, it's important to go early?

GUPTA: Well, I think with regard to his ankles and his hands, you know, so I think for a lot of doctors, it looks concerning, which is why you then ask the questions and you investigate what's going on here, and the answers that the White House Medical Unit has provided in the past, I mean, they do seem very plausible and very reasonable.

So, when it comes to the ankles, for example, you have blood that's pumping throughout the body. If the blood, for whatever reason, is not circulating as well, it can start to pool or accumulate, which is what seems to be happening in his ankles, and usually in the ankles because of just gravity. They say this is something known as chronic venous insufficiency, where the veins that bring blood back to the heart just aren't working as well.

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And that's, you know, somewhat common, 1 in 20 people. And it gets even more common as people get older.

With regard to the hands, again, I asked about that, say he's on blood thinners, he's shaking a lot of hands, so he has this frequent hand trauma, but he is also had a lot of sun damage over the years. If you look at the hands, you can see more bruising on the right, for example, than the left, the hand shaking hand. So, again, that seems plausible.

But to your question, Pamela, yes, these things look concerning, which is why then an investigation is warranted and it sounds like they did that.

BROWN: So, what do we know about his health overall? I mean, he is one of the oldest presidents.

GUPTA: Yes. I mean, it's pretty remarkable, right? I mean, if you think about just lifespan overall in this country, it's around 76 years old. So, last two presidents have exceeded that, you know, so he is 79 years old.

A few things that we know, basic things that they always give after these visits, things that we'll probably get today, his weight, blood pressure, a lot to be made of this screening test for dementia, known as the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Exam. And I know he's had this done a few times, I believe, at this point. And according to him and his doctors, he's always scored a perfect score on that.

We know he's on certain medications, statin medications, cholesterol medications. His cholesterol levels are back down to very reasonable levels. Aspirin, as I mentioned, maybe associated with his hand bruising. And we know that he's had a cardiac C.T. scan in the past, Pamela.

I'll just leave you with this. That cardiac C.T. revealed that he had a high number, which was indicative of pretty common form of heart disease. But that's all we really know.

BROWN: All right. Dr. Sanjay Gupta, we will be tracking this visit closely today. Thank you so much.

GUPTA: Got it. Thank you.

BROWN: Happening now, Israel says a ceasefire is now in effect in Gaza and its forces are pulling back after two years of war. Right here, this is new video of Palestinians streaming toward Gaza City this morning as Israel withdraws from the area.

And this is new video into The Situation Room from Israel's military. It shows troops pulling out from parts of Gaza. As you see, some forces will remain in about 200 U.S. troops will be around there to head to Israel to provide oversight of the plan.

Also this morning, you see celebrations in Tel Aviv's Hostage Square as families await the return of their loved ones, both living and dead. Israel's prime minister says that will happen soon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: We shed tears. Our heart was breaking. I promise them I won't give up on any of them. And then all of our hostages will return in the next few days.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BROWN: These are the 48 hostages set to be returned to Israel. At least 20 of them are still believed to be alive. Among the remains, an IDF soldier who was killed in 2014.

Let's bring in CNN's Jeremy Diamond. He is in Tel Aviv's Hostage Square. You've been tracking all of this. What are you seeing and hearing there, Jeremy?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT: Well, Israelis are continuing to celebrate this agreement, the fact that the hostages will be coming back in a matter of days. And already inside of the Gaza Strip, we are starting to see the first phase of this agreement get underway. You know, it only took about ten hours from the moment when the Israeli cabinet approved this deal to go forward, and when the Israeli military announced that it had completed the initial withdrawal of Israeli troops from parts of the Gaza Strip back to those lines of control where they will remain as Hamas prepares to release the hostages.

The fact that com withdrawal was completed at noon today was announced and also meant that the ceasefire officially took hold inside of Gaza, and also that the 72-hour countdown until those hostages are released has begun. This means that the latest possible date when hostages could be released from Gaza will be noon on Monday, but it could happen sooner, perhaps even as early as Sunday, according to Israeli officials who I have been speaking with.

What's clear is that this is all moving forward and it is also allowing Palestinians inside the Gaza Strip to begin to return to their homes. We have begun to see an enormous movement of thousands of Palestinians beginning to move along Al Rashid Street, that coastal road inside the Gaza Strip, back towards Gaza City, where in the past month or so, we have seen hundreds of thousands of Palestinians be displaced from their homes as the Israeli military intensified its operations there, preparing for an all-out invasion of Gaza City, which never fully came to fruition because of this ceasefire agreement that has been struck.

We also know that the hard work is already beginning to go underway in order to prepare and to allow for the next phases of this agreement to actually take place.

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That's part of why President Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and his special envoy, Steve Witkoff, are still in Israel meeting with the Israeli prime minister today to begin to try and lay the groundwork for the next phases of this and to ensure that as President Trump said yesterday that this actually marks an end to the war in Gaza all together.

Today, we also heard the Israeli prime minister for the first time acknowledging that the bodies of some of those 28 deceased hostages being held in Gaza may not immediately be released during the release of those 20 living hostages, which, again, could come as early as Sunday, and that is because we know that Hamas does not know the location of all of those bodies. The International Committee of the Red Cross is set to begin assisting with finding and locating and retrieving some of those bodies that may indeed be under the rubble in Gaza in order to try and give the families of those some closure and the ability to bury them. Pam?

BROWN: All right. Jeremy Diamond, thank you so much.

Still ahead right here in The Situation Room, another one of President Trump's political foes indicted what we're learning about the charges against New York Attorney General Letitia James.

And later, the shutdown's real effects, today's paycheck for many federal workers may their last for a little while.

We'll be right back.

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BROWN: Happening now with ceasefire is now in effect as Israeli troops pull out from parts of Gaza. This right here is new video showing the IDF withdrawing today. Israel says some troops will still be present in areas of Gaza. President Trump is expected to visit Israel Monday to mark the release of the hostages held in Gaza. That's according to Israeli police.

And this morning the White House is slamming the Nobel Peace Prize Committee after the president was passed over for the award, saying the committee, quote, proved they place politics over peace.

Joining us now is Republican Congressman Don Bacon of Nebraska. He is a key member of the Armed Services Committee. Thanks for coming on.

So, how much credit do you think President Trump deserves for this ceasefire agreement? Do you think he should have won the Nobel Peace Prize this morning?

REP. DON BACON (R-NE): Well, there's two questions here. The first one, I think he deserves a lot of credit for getting an agreement between Israel and Hamas. But the most important milestone here will be when those hostages get released, and if Hamas actually releases them, that is the most important thing here, getting those 20 live hostages back and the 28 bodies that the remains.

And I am not totally convinced that Hamas will live up to that. My experience has been they would rather die than have peace with Israel. But I think the President deserves a lot of credit for bringing these two together.

This whole thing about the Nobel Peace Prize, I think, is silly. Do the right thing. Try to create peace. Lobbying for an award, to me, it looks unseemly. And he would just be better off delivering results and let the chips fall where they fall for the Nobel Peace Prize. But we also got to be clear, the Nobel Peace Prize is for this last one for what happened in 2024. He wasn't even president yet. And so I think we just should be honest, the Nobel Committee, they were looking for behavior and actions and achievements from 2024.

BROWN: So -- all right, so you have that, and it sounds like you're not entirely confident that these hostages will be released. We'll have to wait and see. It's still very tenuous, right?

I want to talk about domestic affairs. New York Attorney General Letitia James, who had previously prosecuted President Trump, now facing these criminal mortgage fraud charges. This is a charge rarely prosecuted by DOJ, according to the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Do you see this as a legitimate prosecution or as weaponization of DOJ?

BACON: I do see a little bit of the weaponization. But let's back up, Letitia James ran when she ran for election to prosecute President Trump. So, she, in her own right, is about weaponization of the justice system. And then whether she's guilty or not, you know, the grand jury indicted her, it'll be up to a jury and the judge to make that decision.

What bothers me the most though in this whole thing, one is that she ran out of prosecuting Trump, so I think she was wrong, but, two, the president was demanding her indictment, you know, two weeks ago. And I think it really muddies the water. Normally, the presidents stay out of this discussion. They let the attorney general and the process work. And when you have a president ordering and demanding indictments, it'll be used by the defense.

And so, strategically, it doesn't make sense for the president to be making these demands or indictments, which will be used by the defense teams to defend his political enemies.

So, what bothers me the most is his demands, and then she ran on prosecuting Trump. And I don't think that was -- neither one was right for doing that.

BROWN: But you look at the bigger context here, right, and I see your point, but just three weeks ago, you had the president posting on Truth Social demanding that his attorney general, Pam Bondi, do something about James, former FBI Director James Comey and Senator Adam Schiff. Now you have two of those three that have been indicted. What do you think about that?

BACON: Well, I think it was a mistake. As I already mentioned, him putting out these demands for indictments, I don't think it's right. I think it's -- again, it's unseemly that presidents don't normally do this. And, to me, it just -- I think it's foolish. He's hurting his own case by making these demands. Because I guarantee you, Director Comey and James here are going to use -- are going to use his words against him in as part of their defense during these cases.

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So, he's undermined his own demands by making his demands public like that.

BROWN: So, do you have confidence in the impartiality of his Justice Department under Pam Bondi right now? BACON: Well, it calls it to question. If you're just an outsider looking in and he's making demands and then the indictments occurred, it undermines the perception of fair justice.

Now, they still got to get a grand jury to do the indictments. So, she could still be guilty. And if she was guilty, she deserves to be held accountable. But with his involvement, it undermines the whole process. And I wish somebody would just tell him in his office, stop talking about indictments and demanding indictments because you're hurting your own cause.

BROWN: I wanted to talk to you about the government shutdown. Obviously, that's a big story. We're now in day ten of it. You have placed much of the blame for the stalemate on Democratic leadership for failing to vote in favor of what you call a clean short-term funding bill.

I want to place something Republican Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene told me yesterday on this show about who she blames for the shutdown. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I see the shutdown completely different from maybe my party leadership. And I'm not putting the blame on the president. I'm actually putting the blame on the speaker and Leader Thune in the Senate. This should not be happening.

We control the House, we control the Senate. We have the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Speaker Johnson has put the house in recess. Leader Thune isn't negotiating with Senate Democrats. Do you think she has a point there?

BACON: Well, I think this could be easily solved if Democrats want a solution. But we got to back up. You got to have 60 votes in the Senate. And everybody says we're in charge of the House in the Senate. Yes. You got to have 60 votes, which means you got to have seven Democrats ultimately to vote, yes. So, 99 percent of the Republicans voted to keep the government open.

And it wasn't -- it's not a so-called clean C.R. It is a totally clean C.R. And by all accounts, any objective person would say, there's no poison pills in this at all. It's an extension of Biden's spending of his budget when he was president. And the Democrats voted for it 13 times when Biden was president, right? But 99 percent of the Republicans voted to keep the government open, and 98 percent of the Democrats voted no. That is the facts.

Now that said, their public demand is some kind of ACA tax credits that were started during COVID and they want a continuation of it. Most Republicans want some portion of these tax credits to remain. Like John Thune has said, we should have income caps on it. You shouldn't get these tax credits if you're earning $600,000. And we also want to make sure that these credits go direct to the patient or to the individuals who need the care versus to, say, companies. And right now, a large share of these credits are going direct to insurance companies.

So, this is what John Thune is asking for, so there's grounds for compromise. But what I'm really hearing from many of my Democrat colleagues, I'm good friends with many of them, it's ultimately not that. They hate Trump so much and they got to show their base that they're fighting back.

I don't know how you solve that. How do you solve that? The president's going to be -- Trump's going to be president for three more years, right? We can't have a three-year shutdown, and they're going to have to find a way to work with us to keep the government open. And most of us are willing to sit down and talk about tax credits. We know we need 60 votes in the Senate. So, it's going to be a bipartisan appropriations bill just by definition.

And so Marjorie should be working with us in the appropriations process to fashion, you know, the ACA tax credits that make more sense. But we all want to ensure that premiums do not go up at the end of the year. I have 700,000 constituents. I don't want to see their tax or their insurance rates go up either.

BROWN: Okay. Quickly, before I let you go, I want to ask you about this other news, a federal judge has temporarily blocked President Trump from sending troops to Chicago. We know that that happened also in Portland. I want to get your reaction to something Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt said about this effort in an interview with The New York Times. He said, quote, we believe in the federalist system, that's state's rights. Oklahomans would lose their mind if Pritzker in Illinois sent troops down to Oklahoma during the Biden administration. Do you agree with that? And should the president pull back from this effort?

BACON: I generally agree with the Oklahoma governor. We have a tradition going back to the Revolutionary War of not using troops in our cities. That's why our Constitution is written the way it was.

President Trump has identified a righteous problem. Crime is way too high in our big cities. Washington D.C., has a violent crime rates per capita, seven times bigger than Omaha, for example.

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And I was talking to the Washington chief of police D.C. here, the average murderer in Washington has been arrested 11 times for violent crime before they commit a murder.

This is wrong. I think the president has identified a legitimate problem that we got to solve. That means more police, better prosecutors, better judges, and we got to keep violent people off the streets. He's identified the right problem. But I think he's going for the wrong solution. Even if we had approval from the judges to send these National Guard troops, it's a temporary solution. We need a long-term solution for this violent crime and let's solve the real problem. And, ultimately, it's not the National Guard walking in the streets of our cities.

BROWN: All right. Congressman Don Bacon, thank you for your time.

BACON: Thank you.

BROWN: We appreciate it. Have a nice weekend. We'll be right back.

BACON: Thank you.

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