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CNN News Central
Officials Investigating After Florida Deputies Repeatedly Punch Driver; Israel Ramps Up Gaza Offensive as Starvation Crisis Worsens; Hamas Says Exerting All Our Efforts to Reach Ceasefire Deal; Senators Demand Answers for Consumer Watchdog Group's Decision to End $80 Million Overdraft Fees Refund to Navy Federal Credit Union Members. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired July 22, 2025 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:30:00]
LETITIA JAMES, NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL: -- in these ICE raids, innocent individuals, students, teachers, small businesses, we all want the same thing, and that is to protect individuals from harm. But unfortunately, what we are seeing is mass ICE agents without any insignia, without any identification, kidnapping innocent individuals that both you and I know.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": New York Attorney General, Letitia James, thank you for being with us.
JAMES: Thank you.
KEILAR: Still ahead, a viral video shows Florida officers pulling a man from his car and punching him in the face during a traffic stop. Up next, how authorities are defending their actions.
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KEILAR: There's growing outrage after Jacksonville, Florida deputies were caught on video punching a driver in the face. Authorities just released this body cam footage after video released by the driver went viral.
[13:35:00]
This is from a February traffic stop. You see 22-year-old William McNeil Jr. saying he was told he had been pulled over for not having his lights on during poor weather.
JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Good lord. It's difficult to watch. Police body cam video appears to show exactly when things escalated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
D.J. BOWERS, JACKSONVILLE POLICE OFFICER: Give me your driver's license, registration, proof of insurance.
WILLIAM MCNEIL JR., CAR WINDOW SMASHED BY POLICE: No. Call your supervisor. Why?
BOWERS: Excuse me?
MCNEIL JR.: Call your supervisor. Why did you pull me over?
BOWERS: I've already told you.
MCNEIL JR.: Why did you pull me over?
BOWERS: Step out of the vehicle.
MCNEIL JR.: No. Why did you pull me over?
BOWERS: Step out of the vehicle.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: The weather doesn't actually look that bad there, which is notable. A warning now, this next video you're about to see, it's disturbing. It shows the moment officers forced McNeil out of his car and then began punching him.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MCNEIL JR.: There's no rain.
BOWERS: It doesn't matter. You're still required to have headlights on.
MCNEIL JR.: Where -- can you -- can you pull that law up?
BOWERS: Huh?
MCNEIL JR.: Can you pull that law up?
BOWERS: Yeah. When you step out of the car, I will.
MCNEIL JR.: Can you pull -- can you call your supervisor?
BOWERS: Huh?
MCNEIL JR.: Can you call your supervisor?
BOWERS: All right. Go for it.
(WINDOW SMASHING)
BOWERS: Exit the vehicle now. Exit the vehicle. Show me your hands.
MCNEIL JR.: Here. I'm here. What is your reason, sir?
BOWERS: Step out.
MCNEIL JR.: What is your reason?
BOWERS: Step out now. All right. MCNEIL JR.: No, don't, don't punch.
BOWERS: Put your hands behind your back. Put your hands behind your back. Hands behind your back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCIUTTO: I -- it's just hard to understand what the reason for the escalation was. CNN's Isabel Rosales joins us now with the latest. How do police explain that, right? I mean, one, the reason for the pullover, but two, as he was asking those questions, why they broke the window and then proceeded to throw him to the ground.
ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jim, Brianna, what we have here are two very different accounts of what happened on February the 19th. That's now at the center of this internal and criminal investigation at the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office. So you have that 22-year-old driver, William McNeil Jr. He's now represented by Civil Rights Attorneys, Ben Crump and Harry Daniels. And listen, they're saying the video doesn't lie. You saw things dramatically escalate after he called for a supervisor.
We saw the officers there punching through the window, striking him in the face, dragging him out onto the ground, and then repeatedly striking him over and over. Now, Ben Crump told CNN this morning that he's calling for those officers to be terminated. Here's what else he said in a statement. He said, it should be obvious to anyone watching the video that William McNeil wasn't a threat to anyone. He was calmly exercising his constitutional rights and they beat him for it.
Now, McNeil is telling CNN that he suffered several injuries from this traffic stop, a tooth fracture, a concussion, a traumatic head injury. And he has suffered short-term memory loss and cognitive issues too because of this traffic stop. Jim, Brianna?
KEILAR: What's the sheriff in Jacksonville doing in response to the video?
ROSALES: Right. So they released -- we saw the cell phone video from McNeil go viral. Well, they released the body camera footage that shows McNeil refused to step out of the car, to hand over his registration, his proof of insurance, his driver's license. And they're saying, Hey, he refused to follow orders. This ain't pretty. But nothing was untoward here. These officers followed their training. You have Jacksonville Sheriff, T.K. Waters. He held a press conference and he says that the viral cell phone footage doesn't totally comprehensively capture what happened during this traffic stop. And notably, he pointed out that the state attorney's office found that no officers violated any criminal laws. Here's the sheriff.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHERIFF T.K. WATERS, JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA: Yes, there absolutely was force used by the arresting officers. And yes, that force is ugly. But as I've said many times before, the reality is that all force, all violence is ugly. And just because force is ugly does not mean it's unlawful or contrary to policy. Do as we ask you to do. If you don't like the word compliance, just do as we ask you to do then, so that we can get finished. Then you tell us about it. If you feel like your rights were violated and we can -- and we can deal with it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROSALES: And the arresting officer was stripped of his law enforcement authority. This is usual and very typical, until the outcome of this investigation comes out. Now, McNeil was charged with resisting a police officer, driving with a suspended driver's license, not wearing a seatbelt, and also possession of under 20 grams of marijuana. We're going to hear from him directly tomorrow during a press conference happening at 10:00 a.m. Guys?
SCIUTTO: Isabel Rosales, thanks so much. Still ahead, Gaza Health Ministry says 15 people there, including four children, have now died of starvation in just the last 24 hours.
[13:40:00]
This as the Israeli military continues to expand a ground offensive in the central part of Gaza. We're going to have details on "CNN News Central" coming up.
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SCIUTTO: The Israeli military is now ramping up a new offensive in Central Gaza, even as more observers and health officials sound the alarm over worsening starvation in the territory. Israel's new assault on Deir al Balah happening as Gaza's Health Ministry says 1,500 people have now died of starvation just in the last day. The head of one hospital told CNN that tens of thousands of children are suffering malnutrition.
The U.N. says nearly 90 percent of the Strip is under evacuation orders or within Israeli militarized zones. For its part, Hamas says, "It is exerting all efforts to reach a Gaza ceasefire and hostage deal."
[13:45:00]
Today, the E.U.'s top diplomats said the Israeli military must stop killing people who are seeking aid in Gaza. The U.N. Secretary General called the starvation crisis there a horror show. I'm joined now by retired Major General Amos Yadlin. He is the former chief of Israeli military intelligence. Thanks so much for taking the time this afternoon.
MAJOR GEN. AMOS YADLIN (RET.), FORMER CHIEF OF ISRAELI MILITARY INTELLIGENCE: Hi, Jim. Nice talking to you.
SCIUTTO: So, in previous conversations we've had, you have said that prolonging the war in Gaza no longer serves Israeli security interests or even its political interests. So I wonder, as the Israeli military is expanding this ground defensive in central Gaza, is that necessary or counterproductive? YADLIN: To stop the war, you need the two sides to agree. And in this case, it was very much clear in Washington that Israel compromised and Hamas unfortunately is not. Since Netanyahu came back from the visit in the White House, he changed the maps. He was really willing to compromise. But Hamas is to blame. Hamas is to blame first because they started the war. Second, because they have these hostages that they're not willing to give back. And then, they are taking advantage on exactly what you said, that this war is not serving Israel.
And Hamas as he hide behind the civilian, he's using the suffering of the civilian, that my heart go to them, to make Israel in a very bad position diplomatically and in the public opinion. So, I'm calling to end the war immediately by returning all the hostages and then let Hamas decide if they want to rebuild Gaza, then they have to demilitarize. And I call on the Americans and the Israelis to agree that if Hamas, the terror organization, is not evacuating Gaza, then Israel can renew the war. But this is not the first priority.
The first priority that Hamas will leave the Gaza Strip. And as an Israeli, I don't want this war to continue. It is against the interest of the state of Israel. It may serve the interest of the government of Israel, or the prime minister of Israel, who want to stay in power.
SCIUTTO: Let me ask you this about the distribution of aid, because one criticism of the new aid distribution program led by the United States and Israel is that it has greatly reduced the number of aid distribution sites, one. And two, that now those sites are under protection of the Israeli military and with fewer sites and more people, right, crowding those sites, the conditions have been created where you have these hungry mobs, right, trying to get food. Is that Israel doing enough to prevent the kinds of humanitarian crisis we're seeing there now?
YADLIN: You have to choose between two bad alternatives. First is what happened for a year and a half that all the humanitarian help went to Hamas. Hamas have made billions off it. It has enabled Hamas to continue and control the Gaza Strip. And there was another kind of distributing food, which distribute by the way, 80 million meals. And I wonder how much of the starvation is Hamas propaganda and how much of it is really what is happening in the Strip.
I can promise you that Hamas people are eating a very good meal all the time, and they enjoying once again, using the poor population to help them in their propaganda war, which I'm not buying.
SCIUTTO: Let me ask you about Iran now, because we're several weeks out since the combination of Israeli military strikes on Iran, and the U.S. military strikes. What is the latest Israeli assessment of exactly how much Iran's nuclear program was damaged, and how far back that program has been pushed or delayed as a result?
YADLIN: Jim, as I told you in the past, it is not science. It is more of an art. But the art is saying that Iran was rolled back between two to three years.
[13:50:00] If they want to go back to the same place, 10 of thousands of centrifuges in very fortified site, and to rebuild, the bottleneck that Israel bomb on the way to their weaponization, which is the Isfahan conversion and some other sites that prevented weaponization.
But the question is not how much they were rolled back, the question is where they're going now. Are they going to negotiate first with the Europeans, and then as the foreign minister of Iran have said, with the American on a new nuclear deal? And if the new nuclear deal will be a deal that will stop Iran for many years without a sunset, that will be the success of this attack. If they will decide not to negotiate or not to reach an agreement, the question, once again, are they breaking or sneaking to the bomb? Then, they don't have to go back to the full program that they have before, or they are playing the long game, waiting for another administration in the U.S., waiting for a development. Iran in the past has strategic patience, and they can exercise it again without choosing to break to the bomb or to reach to the deal.
SCIUTTO: And as you've said before, Israel reserves the right to strike again if that happens. Major General Amos Yadlin, thanks so much for joining.
YADLIN: It's a pleasure being with you, Jim.
SCIUTTO: We do have new details now on the passenger jet that was forced to make an aggressive maneuver, as the pilot said, to avoid a collision with a B-52 bomber. Ahead why the Air Force is now blaming air traffic control.
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[13:56:14]
KEILAR: In today's home front, several Democratic Senators say they're alarmed by the Trump Administration's decision to dismiss a case that would've refunded tens of millions of dollars in overdraft fees, mostly to military and veteran families. In November, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ordered Navy Federal Credit Union to return $80 million in overdraft fees to its customers and pay a $15 million fine. But earlier this month, the Acting Director of the CFPB terminated the order without explaining why.
Democratic lawmakers led by Arizona Democratic Senator Ruben Gallego, a combat veteran, have written a letter to the administration demanding answers. It reads in part, at a time when families are feeling the strain of higher costs and every dollar is hard earned, the American people, especially our service members, veterans and military families, deserve more. They deserve a bureau that has their backs, not one that shields institutions from accountability. We reached out to the Senator's office, they say they got confirmation the letter was received, but so far no response to its contents.
The credit union, however, agrees with the order. Navy Federal telling the AP, "Navy Federal complied with all applicable laws and regulations at the time and continues to do so. We firmly believe the CFPB's decision to terminate the order was appropriate. Navy Federal Credit Union has more than 14 million military connected members that are -- are there veterans, active duty service members, military families, or civilian employees of the Defense Department.
And when we come back, the fallout over the Jeffrey Epstein files, the Department of Justice says it is in talks with Ghislaine Maxwell as the House Speaker kicks the can down the road on a vote to release the files.
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