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Blanche: DOJ Will Not "Pledge" Independence From Pres. Trump; New British Pm Communicated With Someone Pretending To Be White House Chief Of Staff; Soon: Opening Statements Begin In Tupac Shakur Murder Trial. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired August 17, 2026 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:01:23]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, decades of decline. How Democrats are fighting to regain ground in the Midwest and the Plains, where elections have gone from competitive to straight red.

Plus, pressing for peace. Jared Kushner is in Israel right now in a bid to advance President Trump's Gaza ceasefire plan, despite resistance from Tel Aviv.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And the sudden death of Hayden Panettiere, just 30, excuse me, 36 years old. The new details we're learning this morning.

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

BROWN: Happening now, new questions about Attorney General Todd Blanche and his loyalty to a president who used to be his client. Blanche was sworn in a week ago, despite concerns from even some Republican lawmakers who questioned if he could lead a Justice Department fully independent of the president. Today, Blanche is adding to those concerns by refusing to publicly pledge that the DOJ will operate without White House influence.

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TODD BLANCHE, ATTORNEY GENERAL: No, I'm not going to pledge that. And no attorney general should ever pledge that the president. I mean, if I were to pledge, I will be independent of the White House. What that means is that if President Trump says, I want the Department of Justice to go after every violent criminal in this country, which is what he has said, what you're saying to me is, I just said, no, sir, not going to do it. So I will act with integrity. Our prosecutors will act with integrity. We will prosecute without fear or any sort of favor.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BROWN: CNN crime and justice correspondent Katelyn Polantz is here in The Situation Room. So put into context for us, Katelyn, why that is such an extraordinary statement from the attorney general.

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, it wouldn't have been an extraordinary statement for him to make if it weren't him being the attorney general for this president, for Donald Trump, who has made demands over and over again for himself and for his own political needs. What Todd Blanche is talking about there in that interview, he's saying that, you know, if the president wants us to prosecute violent crimes broadly, why wouldn't I do that?

That is the sort of thing that you would hear from an attorney general, that the Department of Justice may be led in line with the same policies that the White House may want, that an administration might prefer. But this is a president who has publicly demanded the prosecutions of his political enemies, and we have seen the Justice Department make those prosecutions happen, indicting James Comey twice, indicting Letitia James, the attorney general in New York.

We've also seen this president demand the firings of assistant U.S. attorneys, prosecutors, who worked on the cases against Donald Trump, the criminal defendant. Those people were fired at will of the president. There's ongoing lawsuits about whether the attorney general even can do something like that. Here's a little bit more about what Todd Blanche said about the distance between him and this White House.

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BLANCHE: Will it take the president of the United States' view on something into consideration? Yes, of course. And I hope every attorney general in history would not answer that question differently, and that there is this extraordinarily false narrative that the president wakes up in the morning and calls me and says, Todd, go prosecute X or Y. He does not do that. He has never done that. He will never do that. And so if there's something that he wants to do, but he needs to know that there's a challenge or that we can't do it, of course I will tell him.

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[11:05:02]

POLANTZ: He may not be calling Todd Blanche directly to tell him to do things, but at least, at very least, he's putting them out on social media, saying, I want this and this. And then you see the Justice Department move. I think one of the things that Blanche is highlighting here is something he promised during his confirmation hearing. It was that if he was being asked to do something by this president and didn't believe that the Justice Department would do it, that he feels the ability to say no to Donald Trump.

We just don't know, though, how much that loyalty will exist, especially as the big test for this Justice Department, the big question, even in court, when there are prosecutors appearing far from where Blanche is sitting in Washington, there's a question about, are they working to protect Donald Trump, the person, or are they working to protect the presidency and the executive branch? We're just going to have to watch that going forward. But what Blanche is saying there has not been the case up to this point.

BROWN: Katelyn Polantz, as always, thank you so much for providing your reporting and much needed perspective. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right, Pamela. And also happening new this morning, the British embassy here in Washington is raising serious concerns with the White House after someone pretending to be President Trump's chief of staff exchanged text messages with the new British prime minister. It's unclear when the exchange happened or what was discussed. But CNN has told Andy Burnham and the impersonator didn't talk about anything, "of significance."

CNN senior White House reporter Betsy Klein has more details right now for us. Betsy, so what is the administration saying about this potential security breach?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, Wolf, this is a very odd story, and there are a lot of questions about how something like this could have happened. But we are learning that the brand new British prime minister, Andy Burnham, who took office just about a month ago, exchanged messages with someone impersonating one of President Trump's most close and trusted advisers, the chief of staff, Susie Wiles. Now, what we don't know is the substance of those messages.

We don't know what kind of messages they were, if this was a text message, if it was an email, something else. We also don't know when exactly this happened, if it happened before or after Burnham became prime minister. But a source tells CNN that no messages of significance were exchanged. And Burnham, for his part, became quickly suspicious that something was a little bit off here. And clearly, officials are taking this very seriously. This was first reported by our colleagues at "Politico."

And according to their reporting, the British embassy in Washington was so concerned about this that they raised this with the White House. Now, this comes about a year after CNN reported that U.S. law enforcement had launched an investigation into efforts to impersonate Susie Wiles, who, again, one of Trump's closest, most important advisors. She had told people close to her at the time that she believed that her personal phone, her contacts list, had been hacked.

And many high-profile people had received phishing messages at the time. That included executives, governors, senators, other members of Congress. A White House official, however, tells us today that this incident with Prime Minister Burnham had nothing to do with the chief of staff's devices being hacked.

So, again, certainly a lot of questions here about how this could have happened. And notably, Burnham engaged with those messages. So, interesting to see how this plays out, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, Betsy Klein at the White House for us. Thank you very, very much. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf. Happening now, Duane "Keffe D" Davis is preparing to stand trial in a Nevada courtroom today. The 63-year-old is the only person ever charged in the 1996 murder of Tupac Shakur. Davis is accused of orchestrating the hip-hop legend's death as an act of revenge. Prosecutors say he provided the gun. They are also expected to rely heavily on details from his memoir, which he now claims he only wrote for financial gain.

So, let's bring in CNN correspondent Jean Casarez, who is here with us in The Situation Room. What more can we expect to hear today, Jean?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, in opening statements, they're going to talk about what the evidence will show. And we are going to hear from people that we have never heard from before. Eyewitnesses that were there watching it, people that were told different things. And this is important because Keefe D is the one that has come out since 2008. He did several statements to law enforcement and then was in a documentary, 2018, came out with a book. His story is, and by the way, he was the head of the Southside Compton Crips at that time.

He was the kingmaker. He said in his book, if the Crips were a country, I was President Obama. And they were rivals with the Bloods in Southern California. And they were at odds all the time. But what really happened was they all went to the fight, the Mike Tyson fight in September of 1996 in Las Vegas. And after that fight, on the MGM Grand Casino floor, a brawl broke out.

[11:10:03]

And we video of that brawl. And it's where Orlando Anderson, who was the nephew of the defendant, Keefe D, was being attacked. He was hit. He was pushed. He was down on the ground. And Tupac Shakur, who was a huge star, he was one that was right in there, along with Suge Knight. And so at that point, when the defendant found out, he said, we've got to retaliate, according to his own words in his book and statements with law enforcement.

And so he had been given a gun that night, according to his own words. And there they are. That is Suge Knight and Tupac Shakur in their car as they were driving on actually Colville Road, right off the strip in Las Vegas. And according to Keefe D, they were looking for him that night. They had the gun. They had the white Cadillac four in the car. They go up to his right. And somebody from the back seat pulls out and takes a gun and multiple shots. Tupac survived six days before he was pronounced dead.

Keefe D could have died too. I mean, Suge could have died because he was shot. He had blood coming out of him. They were both taken to the hospital. But what is interesting in the prosecution documents is the gang mentality, that retaliation is a focal point. When something is done to one of the Crips, they have to retaliate against the Bloods. And Tupac never said he was aligned with the Bloods, but he associated with them.

And so they are saying this is murder with a deadly weapon with the intent to promote, facilitate and assist gang activity. And that's the life in prison charge that Keefe D is facing.

BROWN: All right. So Keefe D is preparing to stand trial today. Just remind our viewers why this murder trial is happening so many years after.

CASAREZ: Thirty years after, right?

BROWN: Yes.

CASAREZ: The investigation had been going on from the beginning, but I think we'll hear in opening statements the challenges because there were a lot of Compton officers, LAPD officers that allegedly protected Suge Knight, allegedly part of the Bloods in all of this. And so the investigation didn't go too far. But as time went on and they kept working at it, finally Keefe D starts doing interviews, implicating himself.

He must not have realized it. And he didn't pull the trigger. They're not asserting that. But he got the gun that night, prosecutors say, passed it around the car and someone in the back seat shot. Now, Keefe D just came out with an interview with our local affiliate in Las Vegas saying, I wasn't even in Las Vegas. I wasn't there. I didn't participate in all of this and I didn't do anything. But that contradicts every single statement that he has given.

BROWN: Yes. Including in his book, right?

CASAREZ: Yes.

BROWN: All right. Jean Casarez, thank you so much. And full coverage of the trial starts today at noon Eastern with CNN chief legal analyst, Laura Coates. You can watch on cnn.com/Tupactrial or the CNN app. Wolf?

BLITZER: Also happening now, a man faces multiple hate crime charges after police say he disrupted services at a New York City synagogue. Authorities say security at the central synagogue in Manhattan had to confront the 46-year-old man after he interrupted Friday night Shabbat services. A law enforcement official told CNN he attacked a woman and a security guard as he was being escorted out and yelled a racial slur. But investigators don't have evidence he was specifically targeting anyone. We're told the suspect also has a history of mental health issues. Pamela?

BROWN: Still ahead, people in Hawaii are getting their first look at the damage from a tropical storm that battered the islands with torrential rain and destructive winds.

[11:13:50]

BLITZER: And later, Republican worries. New CNN reporting on how the Trump administration is stepping in to try to address GLP concerns about the midterm elections. Lots going on. You're in The Situation Room.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BROWN: Happening now, some 120,000 homes and businesses are without power across Hawaii. Tropical Storm Lala is churning out to sea after hitting the islands with destructive flooding and strong winds over the weekend. One area saw a mind-boggling 43 inches of rain. So let's go straight to CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam in the Weather Center. What's the latest from Hawaii, Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, even though the storm is now pulling away from the Hawaiian Islands, the damage has already been done. And when you start measuring that rainfall in feet, you get this as a result, right? What would normally be just a trickle of water or a small waterfall turns into a raging torrent. And of course, that was responsible for taking buildings off of their foundations and destroying some homes as well.

Now, Mauna Kea, the summit that stands at roughly 13,800 feet, had a wind gust of 140 miles per hour. Close to the ground level, we did have hurricane force gusts. By the way, Mauna Kea actually had snow on the top of its elevation because of its altitude being so high. Think about that. Middle of August, a hurricane bringing snowfall. That's really something. There's still 100,000 plus customers without power across the Hawaiian Islands.

But the good news is what is now Tropical Storm Lala moving away from the islands. There's still some outer bands there impacting Hawaii. This storm, believe it or not, is actually going to strengthen as it gets into more favorable environment and warmer waters and back into a hurricane. But that'll be fish food for the days to come. Really no major significant additional impacts expected across the Hawaiian Islands. And the rainfall here, really totally no more than an inch or so. But this is what people had to bear with this past weekend. Pamela?

[11:20:09]

BROWN: Wow. Look at that. And there's also been this disastrous flooding in the Midwest. Tell us about that.

VAN DAM: Yes. We've been following this story for the past week prior to Hawaii this weekend. And this has just been lining up one after another after another. We had a derecho, which is that straight line wind event that knocked out power. People still in northwestern Indiana without power. But because we had these repetitive rounds of thunderstorms, it brought rainfall over the same areas because the weather pattern was basically stuck and allowing those thunderstorms to move over the same regions, creating over a foot of rain in some locations, one to 1,000 year rainfall events. We reported on it heavily last week.

Now the flooding starting to recede, but there are still swollen rivers out there. Moderate flood stage at 15 flood gauges across Indiana and into the Ohio Valley. Right now, our flood threat really centered across West Virginia and eastern Kentucky, southern Ohio, but a far cry from the amount of rain that we picked up last week at this time, really just another one to two inches across that area. But we'll be on the lookout for additional flooding in the days to come. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Derek Van Dam, thank you so much.

BLITZER: On this note, tomorrow we're going to be speaking with the Hawaii Governor Josh Green about how his state is responding to the storm's destruction. That's coming up tomorrow.

But up next, strawberry sticker shock. Could it be the next grocery store item to skyrocket in price? We'll explain why a buddy investigating could make them even more expensive.

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[11:26:04]

BLITZER: Happening now, prices on strawberries in the United States could soon turn sour. That's because the Trump administration is investigating claims that Mexican growers are selling winter berries at unfairly low prices. And that probe could lead to tariffs to help domestic farmers compete and ultimately higher costs for shoppers.

Let's go to CNN economics reporter Elizabeth Buckwald. Elizabeth, what will this investigation involve and how soon could these tariffs actually go into effect?

ELIZABETH BUCHWALD, CNN ECONOMICS REPORTER: Yes, well, let's start off with this carton of strawberries that I got from Whole Foods this morning. They are from California, and that's not a coincidence. In the summer months, the U.S. actually gets most of its strawberries domestically. It's when we go to the winter months where we're relying more on Mexico for the strawberries here.

And so what already happened is an independent agency came in and they said that the imports from Mexico are hurting U.S. growers. The Commerce Department, which obviously is not independent, is now determining whether the strawberry imports, the prices of them, are unfairly low. And at that point, there could be tariffs. But these are preliminary investigations going on, so it could take months. But it could be also coming at a time when we rely on the strawberries most.

BLITZER: Elizabeth Buchwald, thank you very, very much for that update. Pamela?

BROWN: All right, Wolf, just ahead, CNN's new reporting from Israel as U.S. Envoy Jared Kushner wraps up a crucial meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. We'll be back.

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