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Lawmakers Respond to Trump Accusing Democrats of Seditious Behavior, Punishable by Death; Now, Bolton Returns to Court as Classified Documents Case Moves Ahead; Ukraine Says, Overnight Russian Strike Kills At Least Five. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired November 21, 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, quote, seditious behavior punishable by death, serious accusations from President Trump after a video message from six Democrats to military members. The outrage in Washington this morning as the White House response.

Plus, intense flooding in parts of Texas as floodwater surge roads.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Meeting with Mamdani, New York City's mayor-elect is preparing for his one-on-one meeting with President Trump over at the White House, and he is getting some help from some top Democrats.

And a plan for peace, a closer look at the Trump Administration's 28- point proposal for Ukraine and Russia as Ukraine pushes back against major land concessions.

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

Happening now, fallout up on Capitol Hill after President Trump accused a group of Democratic lawmakers of, quote, seditious behavior punishable by death, end quote. The members of Congress who previously all served in the U.S. military or the intelligence community posted a video urging people currently in those roles to, quote, refuse illegal orders. The Democrats declining to back down despite the that presidential threat, even as some receive extra protection right now out of deep concern for their safety.

Here's what that video in full. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. ELISSA SLOTKIN (D-MI): I'm Senator Elissa Slotkin.

SEN. MARK KELLY (D-AZ): Senator Mark Kelly.

REP. CHRIS DELUZIO (D-PA): Representative Chris Deluzio.

REP. MAGGIE GOODLANDER (D-NH): Congresswoman Maggie Goodland. REP. CHRISSY HOULAHAN (D-PA): Representative Chrissy Houlahan.

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): Congressman Jason Crow.

KELLY: I was a captain in the United States Navy.

SLOTKIN: Former CIA officer.

DELUZIO: Former Navy.

CROW: former Paratrooper and Army Ranger.

GOODLANDER: Former intelligence officer.

HOULAHAN: Former Air Force.

KELLY: We want to speak directly to members of the military.

SLOTKIN: And the intelligence community.

CROW: Who take risks each day.

DELUZIO: To keep Americans safe.

SLOTKIN: We know you are under enormous stress and pressure right now.

HOULAHAN: Americans trust their military.

DELUZIO: But that trust is at risk.

KELLY: This administration is pitting our uniform military.

SLOTKIN: And intelligence community professionals.

CROW: Against American citizens.

KELLY: Like us, you all swore an oath.

GOODLANDER: To protect and defend this Constitution.

DELUZIO: Right now, the threats to our Constitution aren't just coming from abroad.

CROW: But from right here at home.

KELLY: Our laws are clear, you can refuse illegal order.

SLOTKIN: You can refuse illegal orders.

CROW: You must refuse illegal orders.

SLOTKIN: No one has to carry out orders that violate the law.

HOULAHAN: Or our Constitution.

CROW: We know this is hard.

KELLY: And that it's a difficult time to be a public servant.

SLOTKIN: But whether you're serving in the CIA.

CROW: The Army.

DELUZIO: Or Navy.

HOULAHAN: The Air Force.

KELLY: Your vigilance is critical.

SLOTKIN: And know that we have your back.

CROW: Because now more than ever.

HOULAHAN: The American people need you.

SLOTKIN: We need you to stand up for our laws.

DELUZIO: Our Constitution.

KELLY: And who we are as Americans. Don't give up.

DELUZIO: Don't give up.

CROW: Don't give up.

SLOTKIN: Don't give up the ship.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: President Trump posted on social media in response, quote, each one of these traitors to our country should be arrested and put on trial. And he shared several other users' posts, including one reading, quote, hang them, George Washington would. We will be speaking to one of those Democrats, Congresswoman Maggie Goodlander, in the next hour of The Situation Room. Wolf?

BLITZER: Looking forward to that interview.

I want to go live right now to CNN's Alayna Treene, she's over at the White House, and CNN's Arlette Saenz, she's up on Capitol Hill.

Alayna, let me go to you first. What is the Trump administration saying right now about this?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, there's a few points to make, Wolf and Pamela. One is that they -- a lot of them were outraged by that video that you just played. Of these Democratic lawmakers, six of them, all of whom either served in the military or in the U.S. intelligence community, they essentially were arguing that they were trying to encourage troops to rebel against the commander- in-chief. However, once the president started posting, particularly that post about claiming that they were engaging in seditious behavior and that's punishable by death, that's when a lot of Republicans started agreeing with Democrats that this went too far.

Now, the White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, addressed this yesterday and she also denied that the post meant that the president was essentially calling on lawmakers to be executed.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Just to be clear, does the president want to execute members of Congress?

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: No. You have sitting members of the United States Congress who conspired to together to orchestrate a video message to members of the United States military to active duty service members, to members of the national security apparatus, encouraging them to defy the president's lawful orders.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: There's a few things as well, Wolf and Pamela, that I've been hearing in some of my conversations with people in that building behind me. The fact that the lawmakers who shared this video or were part of this video did not give any examples of any illegal orders that perhaps the military had received or would receive. I also want to point you to what we heard from the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche. He said that the Justice Department was going to be opening a formal investigation to look into all of this.

But I do want to be clear, we know that the law states that service members should not be obeying illegal orders and to do so would actually open them up to prosecution. I'd remind you of the Nuremberg trials. And so this is going to be very messy. There's a chance we will hear from the president today addressing this. A lot of people very eager to know what exactly he meant with these posts.

BROWN: All right. So, let's bring in -- oh, go ahead Wolf.

BLITZER: No, I was just going to say at Nuremberg, the Nazi generals and other senior military officers simply said they were obeying orders from the top, but those orders were illegal, and as a result, they paid the price for those illegal orders. Democrats were not saying, you know, to go ahead and disobey legal orders. They were saying disobey illegal orders or something that goes against the Constitution.

BROWN: That's right. So, I want to go to Capitol Hill now, Wolf, to see how Republicans there are responding to this. Tell us more, Arlette.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, President Trump's comments have really drawn a mixed reaction from Republicans up here on Capitol Hill, but there have been a number of Republican lawmakers who have said that the president's comments were inappropriate and do not help do anything to lower the temperature at a time when there's a lot of concern about political violence and highly charged political rhetoric as well.

Now, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that he doesn't agree with President Trump's comments, but his counterpart in the House, House Speaker Mike Johnson, early in the day yesterday defended the president's comment, saying that it's the Democrats who were out of line with their video. But then hours later, Johnson did concede that he would not have used that highly charged language that the president did.

Here's a sampling of how some of the lawmakers have reacted to this moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. MIKE JOHNSON (R-LA): Obviously, I don't think that these are crimes punishable by death or any of that, okay? But what the point that we need to emphasize here is that members of Congress and the Senate in the House should not be telling troops to disobey orders.

REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): I don't think that really matters at this point. I think it's at such a pitch that it's just white noise.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): I think what they did was despicable. I don't agree with the president they should be put in jail but I do believe what they did was despicable and they did explain themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, while Republicans have had mixed reactions on this topic, the president's comments have really rattled Democrats up here on Capitol Hill. Senator Chris Murphy yesterday very forcefully said that he is concerned that this could lead to additional political violence down the road.

We know that both Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries have talked with Capitol Police about additional security for Democratic lawmakers, specifically those six who made that video. But for those six Democrats, they have said that they are undeterred and will not be intimidated by President Trump's threats.

BLITZER: All right. Arlette Saenz and Alayna Treene, thanks very much for that update, a big story. Pamela?

BROWN: Yes, it absolutely is. And there's this other story we're following, Wolf, this former Congressional staffer who was accused of staging her own political assault. Federal prosecutors accused Natalie Greene of paying someone $500 to slash her face, neck, and other parts of her body. The Justice Department says Greene's co-conspirator called 911, claiming they both had been attacked by three men and held at gunpoint. Her alleged accomplice told police the attackers referred to Greene by name and knew she had worked in the office of Republican Congressman Jeff Van Drew. Graphic messages, the words Trump and racists, were written on Greene's body, you see it right here.

But according to the criminal complaint, authorities found zip ties in her car, similar to the ones used to bind her hands and feet, and they found a receipt from the body modification artist who allegedly made the cuts to her body.

Greene is charged with conspiracy and making false statements to law enforcement and could get up to ten years in prison if she's convicted.

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Wow. Wolf?

BLITZER: Wow, indeed. All right, happening now, former National Security Adviser John Bolton is back in court for a hearing over his federal case on charges of mishandling classified information.

BROWN: And later, Wicked, for Good, is expected to bring some magic to the box office, but is it worth the hype?

You're in The Situation Room. We'll be back.

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BROWN: Happening now, former National Security Adviser John Bolton is back in court where a hearing just got underway in the Justice Department's classified documents case against one of President Trump's chief critics.

So, let's discuss more now with former Federal Prosecutor Berit Berger. Berit, this hearing is described as an initial status conference, but what happens from here?

BERIT BERGER, FORMER FEDERAL PROSECUTOR: Yes. So, an initial status conference is a pretty routine proceeding. You would have these in any charged criminal case. The judge will ask about the status of discovery production. Has the government started turning over discovery to the defendant? The judge will probably also ask if the defense is going to have motions that they make. They'll set a briefing schedule. They may set a trial date as well.

So, a routine proceeding, but it will give us a preview, number one, into the motions that the defendant plans to make, how they plan to argue that the case should be dismissed, if that in fact is one of the arguments they're going to make. We'll get a little bit of a preview of their strategy.

We'll also get a sense from the government of what their discovery is going to look like here. You have a case that's involving classified documents. So, I expect it'll be a more complicated procedure than you would see in a case that's not involving that type of document.

BROWN: All right. I'm going to turn to this other story about the Justice Department investigating possible issues and another investigation where an adversary of the president has been targeted. So, sources are telling CNN that a federal grand jury is now investigating whether two Trump political appointees, Bill Pulte and Ed Martin, and properly appointed people who were unauthorized to help in the mortgage fraud investigation of Democratic Senator Adam Schiff of California. How significant is this and how does this complicate a possible case against Schiff?

BERGER: Yes. I mean, I think if people watching were surprised when they see the headline, that's because what you have is the DOJ investigating the DOJ, which is really not something that we've seen very much in this administration.

So, it looks like the DOJ, at least from initial reports and based on the subpoena that we've seen, is investigating whether people that were not authorized to conduct a federal investigation were essentially impersonating federal agents. We don't know who those people are. We don't know who the targets of this investigation are.

But what we do know is you're not allowed to go out and represent yourself to be either a federal agent or somebody deputized to be any sort of a federal investigator unless you actually are a federal agent. There's a crime for this. It's impersonation. It's something that, you know, we've charged before, usually if somebody is going out and pretending to be, you know, an FBI agent or something like that.

And if in fact that was happening, that would be very significant for Adam Schiff's case. I mean, the idea that you would have interviews that would've been conducted improperly certainly cast doubts on the integrity of this case and may well give reason for any potential criminal charges to be nullified.

BROWN: So, then could it implicate DOJ'S mortgage fraud case against another one of Trump's political enemies, New York Attorney General Letitia James?

BERGER: Absolutely, it could. I mean, look, all of this is just casting doubts on the legitimacy of these investigations. You know, what it does is give the defense one more avenue to argue that there was misconduct, not that they needed another avenue, because, as we know, there's plenty of arguments the defense particular in that case has with respect to vindictive or selective prosecution, potentially issues with the grand jury. I mean, it just gives them an opening to say something's fishy about this case. Either the investigation was done in a rushed way, was done in an improper way. But either way, Judge, we need to put this under a microscope and really look closely to make sure the DOJ was acting properly and with the right authorization.

BROWN: All right. So, let's look at this other case involving another Trump adversary. That would be James Comey. His attorneys are expected to file motions today to have the case against the former FBI director dismissed. So, you'll recall, and for our viewers who have been following this, after the Justice Department, they released this week, not every member of the grand jury saw the final version of the Comey indictment.

Well, federal prosecutors now say that's not true, and this court filing yesterday, the Justice Department says, the full grand jury did indeed review the full indictment. What do you make of what's happening here?

BERGER: Yes. I mean, if this seems complicated, it's because it is. This is not something that we see every day or even every year. It is really uncommon for there to be a no true bill returned by the grand jury. So, the fact that there was a lot of confusion and, you know, people not knowing exactly how to handle it, that in itself is not surprising. What is surprising is that they didn't take a beat to say, okay, we need to actually dig into this to figure out what the correct procedures are.

Now, do I think that this is going to be the reason that the case is dismissed on its own?

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I don't. I think, ultimately, if there is an argument that there, you know, was a document put before the magistrate judge and it was affirmed by the grand jury foreperson, whether there was annotations, I think there probably is a good, strong argument that there wasn't much prejudice to the defendant.

However, this is sort of the cherry on top of just a panoply of issues with this indictment, mostly identified by the magistrate judge as things that Lindsey Halligan said to the grand jury, potentially shifting the burden, saying, you know, maybe Comey will testify about this, implicating that the government had lots of other evidence that they hadn't presented to the grand jury. And this is all on top of these broader issues of vindictive prosecution and the government having animus towards Comey.

So, while I don't think this more technical issue will be the only reason that the indictment is dismissed, I think this will be sort of a built and suspenders approach where this will be one of a host of reasons that ultimately this indictment is confirmed.

BROWN: All right. Berit Berger, thank you so much. Wolf?

BERGER: Thank you.

BLITZER: Also coming up, ending Russia's war in Ukraine. We have details of President Trump's new 28-point peace plan and how Ukraine and the Kremlin are responding.

Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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BLITZER: Happening now, we're learning more about an overnight Russian attack on the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia that killed at least five people, that according to the governor there. Video from the scene shows buildings engulfed in flames and rubble littering the streets. The attack comes as Ukraine reviews President Trump's new peace plan, which would have Ukraine making really stunning concessions to Russia. President Zelenskyy says he expects to speak to President Trump in the coming days.

Let's go live right now to CNN National Security Correspondent Natasha Bertrand. Natasha, what's in this new Trump proposal and how is it being received in Ukraine?

NATASHA BERTRAND, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf. This 28-point plan would require some very serious land and military concessions by the Ukrainians to the Russians, including the concession of Crimea, Luhansk and Donetsk, essentially the island of Crimea, of course, and, of course, basically the entire eastern portion of Ukraine to be recognized as de facto Russian, including by the United States, and that would mark a pretty stunning reversal of longstanding U.S. policy to acknowledge Ukraine's territorial integrity, which has been the policy dating back to several administrations now.

Now, the plan also calls for Ukrainian forces to withdraw from the parts of Donetsk that they currently control. So, this would not just be giving up the parts of Ukraine that Russia controls. They would also be obligated under this plan to give up territory that they already control. And so that is also very significant.

The plan would also call for Ukraine's armed forces to be reduced to about 600,000 personnel and the Ukrainians would have to commit to never joining NATO. NATO troops would also be unable to be stationed on Ukrainian territory, which, of course, was one of those key security guarantees that the Ukrainians had been asking for, that countries from NATO would have troops stationed in the country to maintain that piece and maintain that territorial integrity if a peace deal were to be enacted. That is a no-go under this new plan.

Now, in exchange, Russia would be granted sanctions relief, they would be welcomed back into the international community. They would have to pledge never to attack Ukraine again. And there would, of course, be some security guarantees that are not specified in this 28-point plan. But it's worth noting that President Zelenskyy of Ukraine, he did just speak to this and he said that his country is facing one of the most difficult moments in its history, saying that, quote, the pressure on Ukraine is now at its most intense, they face their loss of dignity or the loss of a key U.S. partner here as the war goes on if they do not accept this plan. Wolf?

BLITZER: Clearly, President Zelenskyy is not happy with this Trump proposal. Let's see what happens.

Natasha Bertrand, thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Just ahead here in The Situation Room, scientific information replaced by anti-vaccine talking points on the CDC'S website, the concerns from doctors coming up.

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