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Trump Calls Putin Crazy After Days of Russian Strikes on Ukraine; Trump Lobs New Threat Against Harvard as Legal Battles Escalate; Man Arrest After Car Hits Pedestrians at Liverpool Parade; Ex-Police Chief Serving Murder and Rape Sentences Escapes Prison. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 26, 2025 - 14:00   ET

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

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[14:01:35]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": A devastating barrage of attacks by Russia on Ukraine leading to shock and dismay from President Trump. He's now accusing Russian leader, Vladimir Putin of "needlessly killing a lot of people."

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Plus, a brazen escape from prison, a manhunt now underway for a former police chief who is serving murder and rape sentences. Find out how he was able to disguise himself to get out and evade capture. And on this Memorial Day, an effort to honor Jewish American soldiers who lost their lives in World War II, but were buried under incorrect grave markers. How Operation Benjamin is helping the families of the fallen learn more about their heroism. We're following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

KEILAR: President Trump's frustration with Vladimir Putin and his war on Ukraine appears to be growing. Over the weekend, Russia unleashed a wave of drone and missile attacks on cities across Ukraine. It was the largest aerial assault since the beginning of the war. Ukrainian officials say at least 29 people were killed and dozens more were injured.

SANCHEZ: The deadly bombardment led President Trump to post this on social media saying that "Putin has gone absolutely crazy." The public rebuke came just hours after Trump said this about the Russian leader.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I am not happy with what Putin's doing. He's killing a lot of people, and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all. OK? We're in the middle of talking and he's shooting rockets into Kyiv and other cities. I don't like it at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SANCHEZ: CNN's Kristen Holmes is live at the White House for us. Kristen, the facts of the war haven't changed. So, what is it that's changed Donald Trump's perspective, his perception of Vladimir Putin?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris and Brianna, you have to remember that this escalation comes just one week after Putin sat down for a phone call with Donald Trump that lasted more than two and a half hours. Afterwards, Donald Trump saying that he still believed that Putin wanted peace. This is now an escalation we've seen in despite of the fact that Donald Trump has directly made an appeal to Vladimir Putin. So that clearly shows you why he would be even particularly more frustrated.

So if you look at this timeline, we're putting up right here of the evolution of their relationship, you have on April 3rd, he tells -- Trump tells reporters that Putin is "ready to make a deal." Now, that was not anyone's understanding within U.S. intelligence. However, Donald Trump said he believed it to be true. On April 24th, he posts "Vladimir's stop" following strikes on Kyiv. On May 19th, they had that two and a half hour phone call, the Putin and Trump phone call. And then now, of course, on May 25th, he says Putin has gone absolutely crazy.

There's also been another evolution that we've seen here, and it's not just over the last month, but it's been really over the last year, which is what we've seen recently is Donald Trump trying to extricate himself and absolve himself of any responsibility when it comes to Ukraine and Russia. One of the things he said repeatedly on the campaign trail was that he was going to solve this war in 24 hours, within the first 24 hours. Obviously, he has not done that, and obviously he has grown increasingly frustrated because of that.

But part of this post that they put up last -- that Trump put up last night also said that this wasn't his problem. It was Zelenskyy's problem. It was Putin's war.

[14:05:00]

It was Biden's war, but it had nothing to do with Trump. This is now the second or third time that he has tried to pull back from having any sort of responsibility here, particularly after he sat down with Vladimir Putin, the two of them again, speaking for two and a half hours. Right before that conversation, he had said that he thought nothing was going to happen until the two leaders sat down. Obviously, they had this conversation and not only did nothing happen in terms of Russia taking a step back, they've actually escalated those attacks.

SANCHEZ: Kristen Holmes for us live at the White House. Thank you so much. President Trump's rare criticism of Vladimir Putin may have given some Republican lawmakers more room to voice opposition to the Russian leader. Longtime Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley posted this today on X. "I've had enough of Putin killing innocent people. President Trump, take action, at least sanctions.

Josh Rogin joins us now live to discuss. He is the lead global security analyst for Washington Post Intelligence. Josh, great to see you, as always. What do you make of this statement from Trump saying that Putin has gone absolutely crazy because it seems that Trump's perception, or at least the way that he's describing it publicly, has changed. But this most recent bombardment of Ukraine is part in parcel of Putin's vision and, and his playbook, isn't it?

JOSH ROGIN, LEAD GLOBAL SECURITY ANALYST, WASHINGTON POST INTELLIGENCE: Right. I think you're exactly right, Boris. The bottom line is that President Trump's tone has changed, but his actions haven't and the Russians know that. We saw the Kremlin respond to Trump's latest statements by saying that Trump was emotionally overloaded. In other words, they're not taking this latest Truth Social post very seriously because they haven't seen any real action to back up the idea that President Trump would put any additional pressure on Vladimir Putin.

And until they do, they just think he's just spouting off on social media, and what else are they supposed to think? So, sure, it may give Chuck Grassley the permission to say something mean about Putin, but President Trump has to make a decision. Either he is going to increase the pressure on Russia and Putin, or he's going to extricate the United States from the war, which will mean that Putin can do whatever he wants and Ukrainians will suffer. And just putting posts on Truth Social saying that Putin is crazy, he is not going to move the needle one way or the other.

SANCHEZ: What is the likelihood that sanctions would have a large effect in guiding Putin to the negotiating table here?

ROGIN: Right. Well, it depends on what sanctions and it depends on who's giving them, and if we do them with the Europeans or without the Europeans, if we attack the things that Russia really depends on for its income or not. But first, President Trump would have to actually make the decision to increase pressure on Russia. And I don't think he's done that. Obviously, the Russians don't think he's done that. And sanctions are not a panacea. They're just one tool.

They can be used in co in conjunction with diplomatic pressure and political pressure, and even military pressure by giving the Ukrainians more weapons to do what they need to do to protect their people. But sanctions alone don't do anything. They're just one tool and not even a tool that President Trump is actually shown any willingness to use in the first place.

SANCHEZ: What do you make of the way in which on one hand, he is more critical of Putin, but on the other, Trump is also saying that everything out of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's mouth causes problems. I wonder how you think Zelenskyy is supposed to react in a way that would appease Trump or at least get both sides closer to peace?

ROGIN: Right. As usual, President Trump is both (inaudible) the Ukraine war, failing to draw a distinction between the attacker Russia and the victim Ukraine. And that's par for the course with Trump. He's got to dig Zelenskyy every time he criticizes Putin. Who knows why? That's just the way he is. And Zelenskyy, I think, has played it smart. He's making sure that he's not leaving any distance between himself and Trump, but he can't not say the truth all the time, just so to fulfill President Trump's warped vision of what's going on, on the ground.

President Zelenskyy has got a country to run, and what he's saying is the same thing that you and I were just discussing, which is that until actual pressure is put on Vladimir Putin, Vladimir Putin is not going to do anything that Trump wants him to do. It seems pretty obvious. It's what everybody thinks except for President Trump. And so, we see President Trump getting frustrated and sort of learning, painfully, the hard way that just believing Putin wants peace and trying to cajole Putin into making peace is not going to work. It hasn't worked.

It's not working. So I think we're back to where we started, increase pressure on Putin or get out of the way and let Putin do whatever he wants to do. And President Trump's trying to do neither of those things or both of those things. Either way, he's not getting the result that he wants. No matter how much he posts on social media, nothing's going to change that until he makes a decision. You've got to go big or go home. And I think Vladimir Putin is playing for time and that strategy seems to be succeeding.

SANCHEZ: Josh Rogin, thanks for the analysis.

ROGIN: Anytime.

SANCHEZ: Brianna?

[14:10:00]

KEILAR: President Trump, today, escalating his feud with Harvard. In a new threat, the president says he may take away $3 billion in additional grant money from Harvard, calling the university "very anti-Semitic." He says he would give that money to trade schools instead. Then Trump went on to blast the university for not yet giving him a list of foreign students that he demanded last week.

Harvard has sued Trump a second time, just days ago, after the Department of Homeland Security blocked its ability to enroll international students. A federal judge has since put a temporary hold on that ban. We have CNN's Senior Political Analyst, Ron Brownstein with us now. And Ron, I just wonder how you're seeing this as Trump is targeting specifically the admittance of international students, including those who are currently enrolled in Harvard. What's the objective here as you see it?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, first, I mean, it is an incredible act of self-sabotage on the economy. I mean, the broader assault on university research, on foreign students, both of which have been engines of American economic growth really since the Sputnik era. And if you look, as I wrote a few months ago, if you look at the places that are driving the most growth, contributing the most to overall economic growth in the U.S., a disproportionate percentage of them, Brianna, are centered around a major research university of the kind that Trump is going after. But I think you have to see this really in the broader light of Trump's attempts, really panoramic attempts in every direction to expand presidential power and to shatter the boundaries that the Constitution and subsequent statute placed against trying to avoid the misuse of that presidential power. Unprecedented efforts to control what civil society institutions and civil society is -- are doing, law firms, university, even businesses that he's threatening with tariffs, sidelining Congress, defying lower courts, asserting really total control over the executive branch and kind of undermining traditional notions of federalism. On every front, you are seeing, I think, the most concerted effort we have ever seen to centralized power in the presidency and use it to reward friends and punish enemies.

KEILAR: One of the things that the Trump administration cited is it announced this ban was a review that Harvard itself had done on anti- Semitism, and also how Arab students felt they'd been treated, but on anti-Semitism, the faults that they found with themselves and how they have handled things. I wonder how you see that, what more Harvard has to do on that, and also, just this idea that there are a lot of folks who say, Harvard does have more to do on this, but the way the Trump administration is trying to enforce this isn't the way to go.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, I mean, there's no question, right, that post October 7th has been a grueling time for universities, dealing with anti-Semitism, dealing in some cases with anti-Muslim activity. I mean, it has just been a tinderbox on universities. But, I think the reporting is pretty clear. There is no one even at Harvard concerned about those issues, who believes that the admin -- what the administration is doing is really a response to that. And in fact, or solely a response to that.

And in fact, in their letters to Harvard, they have demanded unprecedented control over admissions, over academic hiring, over kind of the distribution of ideology on campus. I mean, ideas that are really way outside of the American tradition and more in line with what we have seen in places like Hungary or Poland where ruling parties sought to control civil society. So yes, there is a legitimate problem. Is it in any way kind of proportionate to what the responses that they are demanding, or even linked to that problem? I think that is a much more tenuous case.

KEILAR: You have a new piece out. It's great. Where you talk about, as Trump aims to expand presidential authority, can anyone stop him? And you detail just this multi-pronged kind of stress test that the U.S. government is under as Trump in an unprecedented way, acts so quickly to test what had been guardrails and checks and balances. You talk to a lot of people who are looking at this and they have different points of view. What did you find about how they feel about how these checks and balances can weather this test?

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, well, look, I think the general view is as I said, that Trump is imposing the greatest stress test on the theory of checks and balances since at least the Civil War, if not ever. As I mentioned, I mean in the debate over ratifying the Constitution and The Federalist Papers written by Hamilton and Madison, they spent a great deal of emphasis -- they put a great deal of emphasis on the idea that separating powers would prevent the kind of untoward centralization of power in the presidency that Congress would push back, that the courts would push back.

[14:15:00]

And what we are learning is that, ultimately, those defenses are only as strong as the people in those institutions. Congress clearly has stepped aside. Trump has arrogated all sorts of power that Congress traditionally has held, including basically shutting down agencies that they've authorized or making policy through emergencies on tariffs and immigration rather than legislation. The courts are kind of a mixed story at this point. The lower courts have pushed back a lot.

The Supreme Court has sent some different signals, for example, in that ruling last week and allowing him to fire some independent agency heads about whether they are going to seriously constrain him. And I think the overall, the divide among the people I talked to is whether they thought the courts ultimately would stand up or would not stand up. But I think there is no question that, in many ways, what our democracy looks like in 2028 is really in the hands of those six Republican appointed justices on the Supreme Court and how far they let Trump go in trying to erase these traditional boundaries on the arbitrary exercise of presidential power.

KEILAR: Yeah, it's a really fascinating piece and just the different opinions that many observers have of the faith put in that institution. People who are optimistic, people who are pessimistic. Ron, thank you so much for sharing that with us.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: And still to come, a former police chief serving decades-long sentences for rape and murder escapes from prison in Arkansas. We have the latest on that search. Plus, we're learning just how elaborate and far reaching a mass jailbreak in New Orleans may have been. Officials say the 10 inmates who escaped had help from at least seven people.

SANCHEZ: And later President Trump's so-called Big Beautiful Bill made it through the House. But the sweeping spending and tax reform bill could be DOA in the Senate. These important stories and many more coming up this hour on CNN.

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[14:21:234]

KEILAR: We have breaking news into CNN, police in the U.K. say a man has been arrested after a car struck several pedestrians at a parade in Liverpool.

SANCHEZ: The streets of Liverpool were crowded as soccer fans celebrated the city's football club, which this year won the Premier League championship. We're going to keep monitoring this story very closely and bring you developments as we get them. Meantime, back in the States, a manhunt is happening right now in Arkansas for a convicted killer and a rapist who may have had an extra edge in evading authorities. That's because Grant Hardin is a former police chief. Local officials released this image of the 56-year-old wearing, what they call, a makeshift outfit designed to mimic law enforcement. So far, there are no specific details on how he was able to get out.

KEILAR: Officials say that all corrections equipment has been accounted for. Hardin is serving a 30-year sentence for the 2017 murder of a man in Gateway, Arkansas. That is the same small town where Hardin had worked as police chief for about four months. Thanks to that case, investigators linked Hardin's DNA to a 1997 rape of an elementary school teacher. He reportedly pleaded guilty and received a 50-year sentence for that assault. Hardin is considered extremely dangerous and should not be approached.

Let's turn now to that manhunt in Louisiana that is now into its second week. State police have now arrested seven people, including the four who are seen here, for allegedly helping these escapees in one of the largest jailbreaks in Louisiana history. Five suspects allegedly committed acts after the breakout by providing aid like food or transport.

SANCHEZ: The two others are accused of helping inside the jail. Louisiana State Police say that more arrests are expected. Meantime, half of the fugitives are still on the run. The five others though are back in custody. Joining us now to discuss is Ed Davis. He's the former Police Commissioner of Boston who helped lead the 2013 Manhunt for the Boston Marathon Bombers. Ed, thanks so much for joining us.

So they've been on the run for about 10 days. What's the likelihood that they're still in the immediate area of New Orleans, if not, perhaps out of state?

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Well, thank you, Boris. Every day that goes by makes it more likely that they will leave the area, and that would certainly be the smart thing to do. Although, I'm always surprised by how, after these things are over, they don't realize that and they stay close to -- relatively close to the facility. I wouldn't be surprised if they showed up someplace in New Orleans and are in that area. They don't usually have a good plan when something like this happens. And the authorities have already been able to grab five of them. The other five will be a challenge because the longer they're out, the more they have the ability to get a safety net or some type of assistance from outside.

I have been impressed with the number of people who have been arrested around this from the facility and among their friends. So, the authorities are really pushing to hold people accountable here, which is a good thing.

KEILAR: How, Ed, do you think these five have managed to stay on the run for so long?

DAVIS: Well, it usually means that they have some assistance. Someone in the community is giving them money or food or actually hiding them out. A lot of times, we find that family members will have sympathy on them and attempt to help escapees like this. So, I'm sure the authorities are looking at close relatives and friends of the individuals, but each case is a different case and each case has to be run down with that person as the center, the escapee is the center of the case, and then looking at everyone around them.

[14:25:00]

So, they'll be monitoring telephones, they'll be doing mail covers for communication through the mail. And obviously, texting and email activity. There's a lot to be done in a case like this.

SANCHEZ: I also wonder what investigators might be able to gather from other inmates because they do believe that there were inmates that provided materials used during the escape, and also folks that tried to help conceal it after the fact. Do you think that they are now interrogating those folks, separating them perhaps, and maybe even leveraging potential punishment over them?

DAVIS: Yeah, that would be the very first step in the investigation, is to go to their associates inside the institution to see what they were talking about, whether they had any plans when they got out. And a lot of times, you'll get information from their associates inside, usually, for -- on the positive side of things, so that they can work off some of their sentence. There's not a lot of security among the individuals in there. They do tend to talk and so, I'm sure that's the very first place that they went.

SANCHEZ: Ed Davis, thanks so much for the analysis. Appreciate your time.

DAVIS: Thank you, Boris. Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Just into CNN, police say they are investigating an argument on a boat that led to a mass shooting in South Carolina. 10 people were apparently shot, another person was injured, some of those said to be in critical condition as of this morning.

KEILAR: The shooting happened at a private weekend gathering in Little River. It's a community near the state's border with North Carolina. It's about 20 miles from Myrtle Beach. Detectives are trying to figure out who's responsible for the shooting. We'll be keeping an eye on this story and we'll bring you updates as we've receive them.

Well, it turns out that getting President Trump's self-titled Big Beautiful Bill through the House may have been the easy part. Hear what Republican Senators are saying about the sweeping spending and tax reform legislation.

SANCHEZ: And we have an update on a story we first told you about earlier this month. The federal judge has just given Florida one month to begin taking steps to protect its manatees from starving to death, the details in just minutes.

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