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CNN's The Arena with Kasie Hunt
Trump On Sending National Guard To Chicago: "We're Going In"; Pritzker Speaks As Trump Says He's Sending Troops To Chicago; Just In: House Speaker Meets With Some Epstein Victims; New: Admin Pushes Back On Speculation Over Trump's Health. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired September 02, 2025 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[16:00:19]
KASIE HUNT, CNN HOST: Hi, everyone. I'm Kasie Hunt. Welcome to THE ARENA. It's wonderful to have you with us on this Tuesday.
As we come on the air, there's a new warning from President Trump to the city of Chicago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, we're going in. I didn't say when, we're going in. When you lose -- look, I have an obligation. This isn't a political thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: We're going in, he says, extraordinarily directly. That was the president just moments ago in the Oval Office. And it seemed to be a confirmation that he is going to send National Guard troops into Chicago.
The timing, as he said there, remains unclear. City and state leaders have been told to expect an expanded federal presence this week. Plans are now being made for this to be a twofold operation. The National Guard being focused on crime. ICE agents tasked with administrations priorities related to immigration.
Now, any minute we expect to hear from the governor of Illinois, Democrat J.B. Pritzker, someone the president has routinely criticized. He did this as recently as today, basically challenging him directly to call the president of the United States at this press conference. And it looks like the governor may be walking there right now, are going to be the mayor of Chicago and the state's attorney general.
Now, my panel is here, along with CNN's Kristen Holmes. She is outside the White House.
So, Kristen, what more did we hear the president say in this Q&A with reporters?
And actually, let me pause you right there. We're going to actually listen in to the governor. GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D), ILLINOIS: I will not call the president asking
him to send troops to Chicago. I've made that clear already. I know this has been an unsettling and difficult ten days for the people of Chicago and Illinois. I'm going to do my best to share what we know as of today, and speak frankly to the people of Illinois.
Rumors have been swirling about what the White House has planned, and sifting fact from fiction has been increasingly difficult because Donald Trump's administration is not working in coordination with the city of Chicago, Cook County, or the state of Illinois.
I want to take a moment at the top of my remarks to note how truly extraordinary it is for the federal government to refuse to coordinate with local law enforcement and government. Our state police regularly works with the FBI, the ATF, the DEA to go after gangs and gun runners and drug cartels. Under previous White House administrations, we regularly received notice and worked together on crime fighting operations.
This city has hosted major political conventions, flashpoint events like the NATO conference, and huge sports and entertainment gatherings over the years and across many presidential administrations. All those events required significant coordination between all levels of government. Some, like the Democratic National Convention last year, even required a limited deployment of the Illinois National Guard for broad security purposes, including especially preventing terrorism.
For that four-day event, there were conversations and meetings that began one year before the convention between my office, the mayor's office, the county board, presidents office, CPD, state police, the FBI, the Secret Service, and the Department of Homeland Security. The mayor and I were briefed at the highest levels of government, and we pledged unwavering support in the effort to pull off a convention that kept attendees safe and protected the rights of all citizens to express their First Amendment rights.
The convention was a true success because of that collaboration, fighting crime requires coordination. We have experienced nothing like that over the past several days and weeks. On Saturday, the head of the Illinois state police received a phone call from CBP's Chief Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino, indicating that ICE would be deploying to Chicago.
It's the first outreach we have received from the Trump administration on this topic. Bovino was short on details and long on rhetoric. So in the absence of significant federal coordination, we've gathered information from unauthorized patriotic officials inside the government and from well-sourced reporters about Donald Trump's plan, which is to deploy armed military personnel to the streets of Chicago.
[16:05:12]
I'm aware that the president of the United States likes to go on television and beg me to call and ask him for troops. I find this extraordinarily strange, as Chicago does not want troops on our streets. I also have experience asking the president for assistance, just to have the rug pulled out from underneath me. When execution meets reality.
I refuse to play a reality game show with Donald Trump again. What I want are the federal dollars that have been promised to Illinois and Chicago for violence prevention programs that have proven to work. That is money that Illinois taxpayers send to the federal government. And it's an insult to any and every citizen to suggest that any governor should have to beg the president of any political party for resources owed their people.
I'd like to ask a question of my own, and it's one the press should be asking as well. When did we become a country where it's okay for the U.S. president to insist on national television that a state should call him to beg for anything, especially something we don't want? Have we truly lost all sense of sanity in this nation, that we treat this as normal?
As I have done since becoming governor, I've been reflecting on my responsibilities to the people of Illinois, and one of those duties is to share with the public exactly what we know.
In the coming days, we expect to see what has played out in Los Angeles and Washington, D.C., to happen here in Chicago. First, Donald Trump is positioning armed federal agents and staging military vehicles on federal property such as the Great Lakes Naval Base. It is likely those agents will be with ICE, Customs and Border Patrol, the Department of Homeland Security, and other similarly situated federal agencies.
Many of these individuals are being relocated from Los Angeles for deployment in Chicago. We believe that staging that has already begun started yesterday and continues into today.
Second, unidentifiable agents in unmarked vehicles with masks are planning to raid Latino communities and say they're targeting violent criminals. As we saw in Los Angeles, a very, very small percentage of the individuals they will target will be violent criminals. Instead, you're likely to see videos of them hauling away mothers and fathers, traveling to work or picking up their kids from school. Sometimes they will detain, handcuff and haul away children. They are law abiding individuals who pay taxes and contribute to the communities who feel safe going to work and attending mandatory immigration check-ins. In other words, they're following the law.
We have reason to believe that Stephen Miller chose the month of September to come to Chicago because of celebrations around Mexican Independence Day that happen here every year. It breaks my heart to report that we have been told ICE will try and disrupt community picnics and peaceful parades. Let's be clear the terror and cruelty is the point, not the safety of anyone living here.
Third, as lawful citizens exercise their first amendment rights, Trump and his team will be looking for any excuse to put active duty military on our streets, supposedly to protect ICE. We have reason to believe that the Trump administration has already begun staging the Texas National Guard for deployment in Illinois. I want to be very clear on this point, and I want to speak directly to
the press right now. We know before anything has happened here that the Trump plan is to use any excuse to deploy armed military personnel to Chicago. If someone flings a sandwich at an ICE agent, Trump will try and go on TV and declare an emergency in Chicago. I'm imploring everyone if and when that happens, do not take the bait.
Lastly, after about 30 days or so, we believe that they will pick up all of those resources that they send here to Chicago and send them to the next city in a blue state, ignoring cities in red states with higher violent crime rates than we have.
[16:10:14]
None of this is about fighting crime or making Chicago safer. None of it. For Trump, it's about testing his power and producing a political drama to cover up for his corruption.
If you need any proof of this, that it's all a big show, well, look at who they're putting in charge. Gregory Bovino, a guy who desperately wants to be a reality TV star. He led the cruel adventures of ICE in Los Angeles, and he's been sent here to do the very same thing.
Go look at his social media. He terrorizes innocent people. And then posts on TikTok edits of himself.
Apparently, this is a Trump administration norm, because the last time we saw staged major ICE raids in Chicago, they sent Dr. Phil here to embed with the agents so he could get views and likes for his social media. When Bovino pulled these stunts in L.A., people got hurt. Two innocent people died trying to flee his masked agents.
ICE opened fire on a vehicle without dangerous provocation. They detained a disabled 15-year-old, drew their guns on him. They have ripped mothers away from their babies and handcuffed 10-year-olds.
In Washington, they pulled over firefighters headed to fight an actual wildfire and detained two of the firefighters on duty in that effort, and they want to bring all of that to Chicago.
During one of Bovino raids, U.S. Customs and Border Patrols own data indicated that their officers had no prior knowledge of criminal or immigration history for 77 of the 78 people arrested. Again, this is not about crime.
More and more reports around these raids include people who were stopped or detained because of how they look, and not because of any threat to the public.
If any of this was about dealing with the complexities of a broken immigration system, then Trump would have had the Congress, Trump Republicans control, write, and pass a comprehensive immigration bill. Not only has that not happened. There is no talk of any such effort on the horizon.
I know how Donald Trump thinks because I've been governor during both of his terms. He has surrounded himself with groveling "yes men" who are too weak to restrain his most violent and unhinged impulses, or who share those impulses as a governor who cares about the well-being of my people. I can't live in a fantasy land where I pretend Trump is not tearing this country apart for personal greed and power.
I have to deal in facts. And here they are. Crime is down in Chicago. Murders are down by almost 50 percent in the last four years. Shootings are down 57 percent. Robberies down 34 percent, burglaries down 21 percent, motor vehicle thefts down 26 percent.
One violent crime is too many and we have more work to do. But we have made important progress on safety that Trump is now jeopardizing.
Just during the last week, I've been in neighborhoods across Chicago, from Bronzeville to South Shore to Chatham to Little Village, the president's absurd characterizations do not match what is happening on the ground here. He has no idea what he's talking about. There is no emergency that warrants deployment of troops.
He is insulting the people of Chicago by calling our home a hellhole. And anyone who takes his word at face value is insulting Chicagoans, too.
Crime is a reality that we all take seriously. Me especially. I've held the hands of grieving mothers who have lost their kids to gun violence. I've been in consistent contact with law enforcement and managed our state through some of its toughest moments.
That has informed our comprehensive, evidence-based approach to crime, hiring more police officers and giving them more funding. Gun and drug and gang interdiction. Investing in community violence intervention, mental health supports, more substance use treatment.
[16:15:01]
Those programs have shown real progress. Then you know what happened? Donald Trump and his Republican allies in Congress cut those programs because they are unserious people who seem to know nothing about fighting crime.
We are ready to fight troop deployments in court, and we will do everything possible to ensure that agents operating inside the confines of this state do so in a legal and ethical manner.
To Chicagoans what you can do is look out for your communities and your neighbors. Know your rights. Film things that you see happening in your neighborhoods and your streets, and share them with the news media.
Authoritarians thrive on your silence. Be loud for America. To everyone listening, but most especially to the press, I refuse to pretend that any of this is normal. I refuse to concede that the abject cruelty that we're seeing play out with the execution of Trump and Stephen Miller's policies are okay, or justified.
I refuse to fall into the pundit trap that demands we sacrifice vital constitutional rights if it's being done in the fake guise of fighting crime. Because, as I said six months ago, in my state of the state address, any rational person who has spent even the most minimal amount of time studying human history has to ask themselves on one important question. Once they get the citizens of this nation comfortable with the current atrocities committed under the color of law, what comes next?
Now, I'd like to turn the podium over to the mayor of the city of Chicago, Brandon Johnson.
MAYOR BRANDON JOHNSON (D), CHICAGO, IL: Thank you, Governor.
Good afternoon, everyone.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Good afternoon.
JOHNSON: Thank you. President Preckwinkle.
HUNT: All right. We have been listening to J.B. Pritzker, the governor of Illinois, responding directly to President Trump, who earlier today had invoked Pritzker's name at a press conference saying that Pritzker should call him and ask him for help fighting crime on the streets of Chicago. J.B. Pritzker saying that I will not call President Trump, he says.
He said that Chicago does not want troops on our streets. That, of course, in response to what the president said, he said earlier today, quote, we are going in and that it was just a matter of time.
We are actually going to go back to the press conference and listen a little bit to what the mayor of Chicago is saying in response to all of this, from the president.
JOHNSON: In our city, we need the federal government to stop the endless flow of guns into our state and into our city.
Chicago police officers have taken more than 24,000 guns, illegal guns off the streets of Chicago since I've taken office. Over 24,000 illegal guns taken off the streets of Chicago since I've been in office. They have worked hard every single day to make our city safer, and they've made historic progress.
However, we will never be able to end gun violence in Chicago as long as the president continues to allow tens of thousands of guns to be trafficked into our state and our city. The vast majority of guns do not come from Chicago. They are not made in Cook County. They are not bought in the state of Illinois.
These guns come from red states. They are coming from Indiana. They are coming from Mississippi. They are coming from Louisiana. And that is the harsh reality, whether Republicans like it or not.
Occupying our city will do nothing to solve this problem. No matter how much work we do or how hard we work, whether it's expanding, our detectives bureau, investing in community violence intervention, and addressing the root causes of crime, none of it will ever be enough until the president decides to end the mass trafficking of guns in our city.
For every gun that the Chicago police department fights to get off the streets, two or three more new guns come into our city. Chicago will continue to have a violence problem as long as red states continue to have a gun problem, shootings will continue as long as this presidential administration continues to put politics over people.
[16:20:00]
We have sued Glock over their semi-automatic guns that are easily converted into automatic weapons with switches. We have taken down gun stores in Indiana that illegally sell thousands of guns to traffickers, who moved them into Chicago. But whatever we shut down and whenever we do this, another one pops up.
The governor has worked extremely hard to strengthen our gun control laws across our state. And as much as we would like to, we cannot send officers across state lines to stop this problem at the source.
We only have jurisdiction over our own city. The governor only has jurisdiction over our state lines. It is the role, more importantly, the responsibility of the federal government and the president to stop the trafficking of weapons across state lines.
For every shooting in Chicago, there is a gun trafficker in Mississippi making money. There is a gun trafficker in Louisiana profiting off of our pain. This is a serious problem that has gone on for far too long, and it requires serious solutions.
We wrote a letter to President Biden after a mass shooting in Chicago two years ago, asking for more resources to stop gun violence in our city by deploying federal agents to hold these gun traffickers accountable. President Biden responded with more resources and stronger enforcement, and that alone had a significant impact on gun violence in our city. We need President Trump to do the same.
Instead of using militarized ICE agents to terrify our communities here in Chicago, instead of sending in border patrol to our city to detain mothers and fathers who have called Chicago their home for decades, working class people who pay their taxes and make our communities stronger, they should direct those resources to taking down gun traffickers so that we can finally put a stop to the violence.
If the Chicago police department had a fighting chance, we could end gun violence in Chicago. But as long as this president allows hundreds of thousands of guns to come into our city, we will always be fighting an uphill battle. And so, our call to the president and to his fellow Republicans who want to weaponize the tragedy of gun violence, the Republicans who want to use the pain of families who have lost loved ones to shootings, and who want to use our city as a punching bag.
Our response is that they should get their own house in order before they say anything about the city of Chicago. We have done tremendous work with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, ATF in Chicago. On August 4th, ATF worked with the Chicago Police Department to take
171 guns off the streets in just one action. They took 64 machine guns, switches. These are devices that turn guns into automatic weapons, and they are all almost always found on the scene of mass shootings in our city.
These guns are linked to shootings and homicides in Chicago, going all the way back to 2017, including the killing of a 14-year-old boy. So, my question is, why did Trump cut $468 million from ATF's budget in his nasty signature bill? Why did he cut funding for the agency responsible for getting guns off our streets by almost 30 percent? Why did he cut 1/465 positions from an agency that is so critical to reducing gun violence?
They cut funding from the agency that is actually stopping gun traffickers, so they could increase funding for ICE and Border Patrol. I'm going to repeat that again so that it sinks in -- sinks in. Trump gutted the agency that actually catches gun traffickers just so that he could hand money to ICE and border patrol.
This president doesn't care about gun violence. He just wants his own secret police force that would do publicity stunts whenever his poll numbers are sinking, whenever his jobs report shows a stagnating economy. Whenever he needs another distraction from his failures. That's what this is about.
The Trump administration continues to try to use the real pain and loss of gun violence victims as a pretext for expanding his own power. Unfortunately, even some elected officials in our city and state have parroted these lies.
[16:25:04]
Here's the truth Donald Trump is the last person in America who cares about families on the south and west side of Chicago. Those who are dealing with violence on a regular basis. He's the last person. The thought doesn't even cross his mind.
If he did, he wouldn't have cut $800 million from violence prevention organizations. These are funds that would have gone towards organizations on the south and west side who are on the front lines, driving down gun violence. He wouldn't have cut $468 million from ATF.
He wouldn't be sending ICE and border patrols to Chicago. He would be sending ATF agents to Mississippi. He would be sending these agents to Indiana. He's worried about the wrong border.
We don't have an immigration crisis in Chicago. We have a gun crisis, and the president could care less about the real solutions.
In closing, violence in Chicago is not because we have too many immigrants. It's because we have too many guns.
So, our message to Trump continues to be the same. Stop posting Truth Socials. Stop making statements. Stop threatening to send troops or ICE. Stop defunding our communities. Just do your job, and end the trafficking of guns into our city.
Thank you. With that, well turn the podium over to the Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle.
TONI PRECKWINKLE, COOK COUNTY BOARD PRESIDENT: Good afternoon. I want to thank all of you for being here.
HUNT: All right. We again have been monitoring that press conference with officials in Illinois. The governor of the state, you were just hearing there from the mayor of Chicago who talked about guns as the reason for the crime rate in the city that he runs. Of course, saying many of those guns come from red states to Illinois and then are found in crime scenes there.
But again, big picture here. Hearing directly from the Illinois governor, who the White House has been taking on today, urging him to call the president and ask for help fighting crime. J.B. Pritzker refusing that ask and instead issuing a warning about what he called an authoritarian tendencies.
He said that authoritarians thrive on silence. He was talking to citizens of Chicago who may specifically be dealing with ICE agents targeting illegal immigrants and others on the streets of Chicago as celebrations of the country of Mexico are looming in that region.
Now, I want to bring in our panel here into THE ARENA. We're joined by national political reporter for "The Washington Post", Sabrina Rodriguez, CNN political commentator Jonah Goldberg, and Jamal Simmons, and CNN senior political commentator Scott Jennings.
Welcome to all of you. Thank you so much for being here.
Scott, I know you spoke to the president on at some length on your show. Did you address this with him? Because, I mean, look, overlaying all of this, of course, Pritzker, likely a presidential candidate in 2028, very much, you know, Donald Trump has focused in on states that are run by Democratic governors, especially those with high profile potential futures. Governor Newsom being the other example.
What did the president tell you? And how do you see what Pritzker did here today?
SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, he's obviously very focused on Chicago. And as he confirmed in the Oval Office, they do intend to go in. He did not reveal to me when they intend to go in, but it's certainly going to happen. That's number one.
Number two, he doesn't think much of Pritzker or the mayor of Chicago, frankly, and had several insults for them.
Number three, he believes what he did in in Washington, D.C. has been a brilliant success. And he's, you know, familiar with the statistics on the number of people who've been arrested, the amount of illegal guns that have been taken off the streets here. The immigration enforcement that's gone on in Washington. And so, I gather that he sees that as a template for rapid reduction
in crime in places like Chicago. And I would just note, while we've been sitting here, that the mayor of Chicago -- of Washington, D.C., has apparently signed an order welcoming federal law enforcement presence indefinitely in Washington.
And she has said that it's working. And she has said that she appreciates the surge of federal resources. So, when I spoke to the president, what I sensed was someone who believed he'd gotten it dead right, that you can have rapid results. And why wouldn't he?
He has a responsibility as the president to go into these cities that he believes are in a crisis of violence and mayhem.
HUNT: Jonah Goldberg, you are a longtime conservative. Of course. Not as friendly with the president as our Scott Jennings over here, necessarily.
JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Fact check, true.
(LAUGHTER)
[16:30:00]
HUNT: But look, there -- the president clearly thinks he is on winning political footing.
But honestly, Washington, D.C. is a different city than Chicago. It is a distinctly different, you know, you often go back to the way the Constitution is written. Is any of this okay?
JONAH GOLDBERG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah. So, first of all, very different cities. First of all, if you throw a sandwich in Chicago, that would be an outrage because Chicago sandwiches are much better than D.C. sandwich. But, no -- more broadly, look, I mean, because the president thinks it's a crisis is not a constitutional thing.
The only time -- the word co-equal gets used a lot in Washington is if there are co-equal branches of government. They're not. Congress is superior to the presidency was the intention of the founders. The only time co-equal appears in the Federalist Papers is to describe the federal governments relationship with the sovereign states of the United States.
The president cannot simply unilaterally declare an emergency and override the constitutional obligations that he has. If that's the case. I would just caution a lot of conservatives who celebrate all of this, and I'm all for crime reduction. But the conservatives are celebrating this.
You listen to the mayor of Chicago talk about the gun crisis in America. Well, what is the stop, given the precedents that Donald Trump is setting? What is to stop a Democratic governor, Pritzker or Governor Newsom to say, you know, we have a gun crisis in America just as legitimate on the facts arguments as a crime crisis and say, we're going o send the national guard into states to go get their guns.
There have to be standards here. The reason why Pritzker keeps -- I mean, I get it for the politics. He keeps saying Trump was begging me to ask him to come. The reason why Trump is asking Pritzker to ask him is because that gives the president legal authority that he doesn't otherwise have, and he doesn't want to get overruled in the courts if he just violates the Posse Comitatus Act, violates the structure of our constitution, and rides roughshod over the prerogatives of a sovereign, co-equal state, governors do not answer to the president of United States. They answer to their own states and their own voters.
HUNT: Jamal?
JAMAL SIMMONS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: We know the president is obviously setting up a regime that has a lot of very bad characteristics. There are military forces on the ground. He's threatening to put them in other cities.
The president is now interviewing and vetting military officers before promotion for some of the general staff. We see real questions about the ethical limitations the president doesn't have anymore. The Supreme Court saying the president can't be investigated.
It all seems like the leader has decided what he wants is the law that's supposed to carry, and everyone else has to adjust. Well see whether or not the courts push back enough to stop more of this from happening. Weve seen some good rulings over the last couple of days, but these will end up in the Supreme Court. And so far, the Supreme Court has a very mixed record about how much it's going to restrain this president.
HUNT : Was it the phrase "the leader" that got that eyebrow raised, Scott Jennings?
JENNINGS: Well, to refer to the duly elected president of the United States, who won the who won the national popular vote and overwhelmingly in the Electoral College, a regime to me is a little beyond the pale. Look, he won the election on two things.
HUNT: But to Jamal's point, I mean, if a Democrat was saying, hey, we got a terrible gun crisis, were going to send troops in to take them.
(CROSSTALK)
JENNINGS: -- to stop them. I guess the Second Amendment would be one thing to stop them. But, you know, we can debate that later.
GOLDBERG: Congress has sole authority over trade. And the president's argument is, is that by declaring an emergency, he gets to take away those constitutional prerogatives from the House. He's declaring -- he's declared nine emergencies since he's elected, so that he can violate all sorts of constitutional norms when it comes to deporting people on all sorts of other things.
JENNINGS: Do you believe it is violating constitutional norms for the president, the head of the federal government, the head of the executive branch to be enforcing federal immigration law?
GOLDBERG: No.
JENNINGS: Because a big issue here, there are over half a million illegal immigrants in Illinois. I suspect most of them live in and around Chicago. Why wouldn't you surge federal law enforcement resources to the place where that many people are violating federal law?
(CROSSTALK)
GOLDBERG: You're talking about ICE, talking about the National Guard, different things.
SIMMONS: Wait a minute.
JENNINGS: Well, he's talking about doing both. And I grant you, there's separate pots. But do you believe it's wrong for the president to send ICE, CPB because the Democrats in Chicago don't want any of it for some reason.
GOLDBERG: I'm not here to defend the Democrats in Chicago. They suck too.
My only point is, is that there are -- there are constitutional rules and prerogatives here that the president has made really clear he doesn't give a rats about. And so -- and neither do a lot of the people who just simply say, because he wants to do it, therefore he should be able to do it because he's declared a crisis. And as the president said, I'm the president. I can do whatever the hell I want. That is not what we have in this country.
JENNINGS: Well, he is saying that he believes it is his responsibility when there is an emergency in the country to try to respond to that emergency. And what he has also said is that these Democrats should be asking him for help. And by the way, what's happening in Washington right now, I think shows what could happen when some local person, even a Democrat, says, actually, you know what? This is a good thing. So --
GOLDBERG: But I stipulate he has constitutional authority to do it in D.C., right? He doesn't have the constitutional authority --
JENNINGS: Why would a Democrat --
(CROSSTALK)
GOLDBERG: That's a different question. That's a fair question.
SIMMONS: No. Here's a question. How is it an emergency when you have people who are showing up for legal hearings to adjudicate their status and about their citizenship and their ability to stay here, and they are being grabbed out of hallways and taken to rooms where people don't know what's happening to them.
[16:35:00] How is that an emergency?
JENNINGS: Well, it is an emergency that we have millions upon, millions upon millions of illegal immigrants in this country that were let into the country through open borders. And now we have to try to get them out. It is -- I mean, our view is it's absolutely an emergency.
SIMMONS: I don't know, I have a friend who has on her wall her the her great grandfather's emancipation papers from the 1850s. And he had to carry those papers around because at any point he could be picked up because of the color of his skin.
I am saying --
JENNINGS: You're comparing slaves to illegal immigrants.
SIMMONS: I am saying when you watch some of the video of people being taken down on the streets of Washington, D.C., and carted off, which look an awful lot like this is just happening from people because of what they look like.
JENNINGS: Which video?
SIMMONS: That is very concerning to me. And it feels a lot like they are being targeted because of what they look like and who they are, not because of what they've done.
HUNT: All right. We're going to push pause here on this conversation, because I do want to bring in the former Democratic mayor of Chicago, Lori Lightfoot.
Madam Mayor, thank you very much for being here.
This obviously, we've been talking about the constitutionality of what's going on, Chicago being different than Washington, D.C. I want to ask you about what the president says is a major problem for people who live in the city of Chicago. He has said to them, hey, you don't have to live like this. I know crime was a significant issue when you ran the city.
What do you say to the president of the United States about this? What do you say to residents of Chicago who may be concerned about crime?
LORI LIGHTFOOT, FORMER CHICAGO MAYOR: Listen, let's be clear. This is never about violent crime. It's not going to be about violent crime.
I'm sitting in a studio that is one block away from Trump Tower. They're charging $800 a night for a room. They couldn't be as bold and audacious to charge that kind of amount if this was a hellscape, if this was a killing field.
So, it's not about violent crime. This is about two things. It's about power, and its about money.
He wants to exercise his power. He wants to scare the heck out of immigrant communities, and he wants to use the pretext of the National Guard or the military coming in to Chicago to boost up the ICE numbers.
But one thing I want to be clear about, we got a ruling today in San Francisco from a federal judge that said the pretense of sending in the troops into L.A. was just that, and we had lawyers defending that administration that clearly put on perjured testimony about the farce in the in the factual basis for doing it. If he comes to Chicago, he's going to be in court, and he's going to be -- he's going to be sued by the state, he's going to be sued by the city. And I believe that there will be private interests that also sue him.
This is not about violent crime, and I don't think we should pretend that this manufactured crisis and his attempt to provoke people in Chicago is legitimate exercise of power. It is not.
Coming into Chicago with troops would violate the Posse Comitatus Act, and he would find the same result as he did in L.A. and in California. If he really cared about violent crime, go after the gun manufacturers who are just mass producing these weapons and have no liability or accountability, go after the gun stores that know that they're selling to straw purchasers that flood into our city, pass common sense gun reform that we have been begging for, for decades. Those are the kinds of things that actually would make a meaningful difference in violent crime.
He's not talking about any of those things. He will not do any of those things because this is not about violent crime. It's about something else.
HUNT: Before I let you go, Madam Mayor, I know we've obviously taken up quite a bit of your time as we watched that press conference together, but I think I would just ask you, I take your point that for the president, you believe he has many other reasons, you know, here for doing what he's doing. The crime rate in Chicago remains what it is. The crime rate here in Washington, D.C. remained what it is.
And what is the answer to getting that? Why can't local officials get that crime rate down? I mean, do you need more cops on the streets?
LIGHTFOOT: Listen, the crime rate has gone down. You heard the numbers of decreases in homicides and shootings and other violent crimes that have gone down and have been going down for the last four years. We can't ignore that, because the president is making up his own facts.
And we also know there are red cities in red states that have higher per capita rates of gun violence and other violent crime that were not hearing coming out of the president's mouth as a places where he really wants to go.
So I just don't -- will not play this game that this is about violent crime. What do communities need? We need to stop the flow of illegal guns. Mayor Johnson was 100 percent right about that. You don't gut the ATF, which is, by the way, really small to begin with.
[16:40:03] You should increase and expand the numbers.
HUNT: Would more cops not help the situation? More cops on the street?
LIGHTFOOT: Well -- well, if they're well-trained and engaged in constitutional policing. But what the what the president has done is brought in the military who are not trained to do local policing.
If he wants to fund more police officers in Chicago? Yeah, absolutely. But you put them under local control. You don't have the federal government from a distance who knows nothing about the nuances of local policing coming into our city and telling us how to police our neighborhoods.
If you want to send more resources, great. Send more money so we can hire more cops, do more to shore up the federal law enforcement efforts to interdict guns and gun trafficking. Absolutely would welcome that.
HUNT: All right.
LIGHTFOOT: But that's not what he's talking about.
HUNT: All right. Former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, thanks very much for joining us today. I really appreciate your time.
LIGHTFOOT: Sure.
HUNT: All right. Coming up next here. Weve got some fast-moving developments in the push to release -- release information related to Jeffrey Epstein. We'll tell you what the speaker of the House just said after personally meeting with some of Epstein's victims.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:45:41]
HUNT: All right, welcome back.
The House Speaker Mike Johnson confirming within the last few minutes that he met with some of the victims of Jeffrey Epstein, which is the issue that Congress has once again focused on as lawmakers return from their summer recess today. Members of the House Oversight Committee also met with some victims today ahead of a planned news conference tomorrow.
Republican Congressman Thomas Massie formally filing a discharge petition this afternoon. That is the first step toward forcing a vote on releasing the Epstein files.
Joining me now is Republican Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee. He is a member of the House Oversight Committee.
Congressman, thank you very much for being here.
Why is -- what is the House speaker doing here? Is he trying to cover for an administration that, for whatever reason, is refusing to release these files?
REP. TIM BURCHETT (R-TN): No, ma'am. I think what we're getting ready to -- you're going to see is that whoever does it. I think those files are getting ready to be released. And I, like you, am concerned mainly about those women in that room. And they requested in that meeting that certain files not be released. And I think that's something we should all -- in our quest for transparency, that we have to be very careful in -- to make sure that those things are redacted.
So, I was in the same meeting. I'm not specifically sure what the speaker was talking about, but that that has been and will be continue to be. My only concern is those ladies in that room and that they get justice, because you got to realize they -- they were violated by Epstein and these other dirtbags and Maxwell. And then they go through the court, the justice system, and it doesn't seem to matter who is in the White House, Republicans or Democrats. They were denied justice once again, and they were violated once again.
And in that case, it was even worse. And it's some of them, as they stated. So again, my concern as it has been, is protecting those ladies in that room. And the others, there were hundreds, apparently others out there.
HUNT: Based on what you heard in that room from these women, do you think it's more likely that the House speaker will support putting out what files would give us more transparency without interfering with what those women want?
BURCHETT: Yes, ma'am, I believe -- I believe that is what the speaker wants. And I believe -- I would predict within a short amount of time I would say before you -- before midnight tonight, I would suspect something is going to be out. I think this thing is gone too far.
And that would be my request. And that has been my request just recently with -- with our leadership. And I hope we get to see some movement in that direction.
And I think we will actually, because people have had enough, this has gone back and forth, partisan, nonpartisan, what have you. And the meeting was nonpartisan, of course. But again, you know, just seeing these ladies lives just ruined by Epstein and Maxwell and, you know, and it was clear from the beginning, Chairman Comer said in the beginning, there will be no talk of any reduction in incentives for Ms. Maxwell.
We do not support that. That is not -- you know, we don't even -- that's not even in consideration. Even though she was put in a -- in a I guess a less security type operation.
And one thing, too. And you all at CNN are really good about inquisitive things. They mentioned in this meeting, getting to -- some of the more minute details and minutia in this case, and that would lead you all to some very, very crooked people in this world and some very deprived people. And I hope you all help us in that quest, because those are the things that we've got to get -- we've got to get the files from the FBI. Weve got to get the Justice Department and everything.
But again, as one of the ladies, you know, one of the ladies, you know, had their names so we could see them. And one lady just had her first name because she was still, you know, this is the first time she'd ever even spoken about this. And just -- and some of the areas that had been blacked out in her mind, and she wanted to get to these files. And then that's when I questioned them about releasing these files.
And they -- and the lawyer thanked me.
[16:50:03]
It wasn't a question and answer type situation at that point.
HUNT: Yeah.
BURCHETT: And he thanked me for saying that because he wanted to make sure that those portions were not released. And that's what I'm afraid of in this discharge petition.
I just want to make sure. You know it. I've been on your show. We've talked about this. I want to get to these people as bad as anybody does. I passed laws in Tennessee. Some of the toughest laws in the country to get at them.
So that is -- that -- I just hope we can -- we can get to that point. Everybody agrees, at least on that point.
HUNT: All right. Congressman Tim Burchett, thanks very much for being with us today. I really appreciate it.
All right. We'll be right back.
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[16:55:06]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have heard. It's sort of crazy, but last week I did numerous news conferences, all successful. They went very well. Like this is going very well. And then I didn't do any for two days. And they said, there must be something wrong with him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HUNT: That was President Trump today directly addressing the rampant Internet rumors that because he had not been seen in public, he was dead.
Our CNN chief media analyst, Brian Stelter, joins our panel to help us understand why it was that the internet decided this.
Brian, where did this come from? BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: Well, you know, right wing and
left wing conspiracy theories come from the same place. They come from a few gems or kernels of truth that then get blown entirely out of proportion. And that's what's happened in the past few days.
And in this case, energy on the left from liberals, from anti-Trump voices who frankly want to see an end to the Trump era. They started looking for clues, turning into amateur investigators, looking at photos of Trump's bruises on his hands, talking about the swelling in his legs, talking about him being absent from public view over the long Labor Day weekend, especially that stretch from Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
By Friday night, the liberals on Bluesky were hoping Trump was dead. Some people were very serious about it, others were just joking about it, sharing memes. Meanwhile, over on platforms like X, you had other people who were offended by the speculation.
It seemed to me, Kasie, that the social networks were benefiting from this because all of this is monetizable by X and Bluesky and other platforms. You know, you had a lot of online influencers who were jumping on this grifting basically trying to make a quick buck. You had other people pushing these ideas for political reasons, promoting the idea that Trump was weak or frail and may not be with us for very much longer.
It seemed to me that there are some liberals who have just given up on challenging Trump and are waiting for him to die. So there was so much energy around this, and frankly, it shows what happens in the age of conspiracy theories where there's so little trust in every and all institutions that an idea like this can gain hold, can gain traction, can go viral, and then cause even more people to post content about it.
It's the ultimate example of a snowball effect, and it's not going away. The questions about Trump's health are not going away just because he was on camera this afternoon, Kasie.
STELTER: Right. Well, I mean, there's the -- you know, conspiracy taken to its end. You know, to the presidents supposed end.
And then there are -- and I want to bring in Sabrina Rodriguez here, who covers Washington and has covered Trump on the campaign trail. There are some facts here about President Trump's health. They had put out more information about his health, actually, in this condition that he has. And we had seen in previous years, and certainly in the previous administration.
But it does seem like this is something that has actually broken through from, you know, our tables right here where we talk about politics all the time, to a lot of regular people's phones.
SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Oh, 100 percent, Kasie. I was on vacation last week, and my chronically online friends who do not follow politics super closely, we're sending TikToks, being like, is this true? What is happening? But I think this really --
HUNT: At least they asked you, okay? That's all of them.
RODRIGUEZ: I very much appreciate it, right? But I think it speaks to as well. I mean, Trump has been nonstop since returning into office, so something like this could take hold in the way that it did this past weekend and the late last week, because we didn't see the president for a couple of days.
Now, in other times, in other presidencies, that wasn't necessarily unprecedented. But seeing Trump return into office and every day the nonstop flurry of news today, hearing him resume, you know, his hour- long engagement with the press and taking all these questions even a day or two, that we don't see that from President Trump is news.
And I think the second thing here that's interesting, though, is it sort of flips on its head. We spent much of Biden's presidency hearing Trump supporters, more MAGA influencers, kind of documenting every day. You know, Biden stumbled getting on the plane or he walked a certain way or he looked a certain way today. And now were sort of seeing that flipped on its head with Democrats taking that approach.
JENNINGS: And why did we have to document it? Because nobody else would.
HUNT: Hold on a second. You had an opportunity to ask the president today about this, and you did not. Why?
JENNINGS: Well, because when he got on the phone and sounded very much alive, I thought it would sound kind of stupid, frankly, to ask a live person if they were dead. But I'll tell you who is a complete piece of shit. I'm going to tell you right now.
HUNT: There have been a lot of swear words at this table today, okay?
JENNINGS: Tim Walz, the former governor of Minnesota, holding up a phone in front of a rally saying, well, we thought we were going to wake up and find out the president had died. Someday it will happen. Someday it will happen.
I used to say he was the biggest buffoon in American politics, but it's worse now. No political official, no elected official should be walking around saying, well, I'm hoping we wake up one day. And the president of the United States has died. Crazy. Absolutely crazy.
HUNT: All right, well, we are up against the clock. It's been a packed show today, and our Jake Tapper is standing by for "THE LEAD". Jake is very much alive. We've both survived Labor Day weekend.
It's great to see you, Jake. Take it away.
