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U.S. Announces New Trade Deals; Transcripts from Epstein Grand Jury Testimony; Delta Fight Turbulence Causes Hospitalizations; Funeral for NYPD Officer Today; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) is Interviewed about Tariffs. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 31, 2025 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

ANDERSON COOPER LIKENESS CREATED BY A.I.: Effects of the disease. The most surprising part? The key isn't some new drug. It all comes down to a simple honey recipe and a powerful traditional Indian root developed by Dr. Sanjay Gupta himself.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA LIKENESS CREATED BY A.I.: And I want to say that this is truly a. landmark in modern medicine. And I am honored to be a part of it. Today, new hope is born. In fact, I'd call it a new certainty.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I mean that looks like A.I. to me, Sanjay. Is that you?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's definitely not me, John. And I -- and if you see any products like this with my image, Anderson's image, I'm sure, it's not us. You know, it's really interesting, and I'm glad someone asked this question, because even my own parents, John, have sent in comments about this. Their friends send them things. People are spending hundreds of dollars. These are fake products.

You were able to notice it, John, right away. You know me. A lot of people may not realize. Look for the natural cadence and image to see if it looks natural. That one is, I think, pretty obviously fake.

Also, search for other sources. Look, if I'm talking about cures for Alzheimer's disease, I'm probably going to be talking to you about it, John, on a -- on a, you know, a news source like this versus some social media platform where you can't find it anywhere else.

So, not me. Not selling any of those products.

BERMAN: Be vigilant when you hear something like this. That's important. Sanjay, that's great. Great to see you this morning. Thank you very much.

GUPTA: You too. Thank you.

BERMAN: A brand-new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

All right, breaking this morning, President Trump says that without his tariffs, the U.S. would be, quote, "dead with no chance of survival." His deadline to cut new deals is less than 24 hours away.

New in the Jeffrey Epstein case. The family of one of the most prominent victims is speaking out after President Trump said Epstein stole her from Mar-a-Lago. The big question they are asking this morning.

And the NYPD officer killed along with three others in a terrifying office tower shooting set to be laid to rest today.

And new this morning, we're getting chilling details about what the killer did at a gun show before carrying out this rampage.

Sara is out today. I'm John Berman, with Kate Bolduan. And this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, the deadline is near. Dozens of U.S. trading partners around the world have less than 24 hours now to reach a new trade agreement with the Trump administration or apparently face the wrath of President Trump's promised tariff hikes. Yes, you have heard this before. This goes all the way back to his announcement that he -- that he made back in April. Since then, the president has twice delayed the tariff deadline. But he says he will not be doing that again.

Just ahead of the deadline, the administration announced a new agreement with South Korea, which includes a 15 percent tariff on goods imported from there. And Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also said late last night that they have struck deals with Cambodia and Thailand, though there aren't any details yet released on what they include.

Negotiations with major trading partners like Canada, Mexico and Taiwan, they are apparently still ongoing at this hour. Also today, the president's tariffs face a critical test at the U.S. court of appeals from small business owners who are trying to -- trying to fight back and stop the tariffs from setting in.

On social media, the president wished the government's attorneys "good luck" and claimed that without his tariffs, as you see there, he says that the U.S. "would be dead with no chance of survival or success."

CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House for us this morning.

What are you hearing there about this deadline now?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, look, from all of the conversations I've been having, Kate, from conversations here at the White House, but also in the broader Trump administration, they think this deadline is going to hold. Of course, there had been a lot of questions about that since it had been pushed in the last several months at least twice now that we've seen him really, you know, put a date on a deadline and then move it back. But we are told, and we've heard the president say this as well, publicly that he wants it to hold this time around. And part of that is because they've actually seen more success over the past week now with some of these trade deals.

I mean, when you looked to this point in June, when he had originally had that deadline of July 9th, there were very, very few trade deals. But recently in this last week now we've seen deals with Japan, the European Union, South Korea, Thailand and Cambodia, as Lutnick said, but still waiting on specifics on that. And so, they're feeling a bit more emboldened by this. And I can tell from my conversations as well that there is some level of vindication, a feeling that, you know, over the last several months they've gotten so much criticism about the impact of these tariff policies on the economy. A lot of people on Wall Street calling up top administration and cabinet officials, telling them that they are making a mistake.

Now, I will say, despite that feeling of vindication, we still actually don't know, Kate, what the impact on the economy is going to be once these actually go into effect and once we see the tariffs actually imposed on these different countries.

[09:05:06]

It will probably take some months to actually see the result of that. But that's just the vibe from within the Trump administration.

Now, I do want to just go back to South Korea specifically. This was a deal the president announced yesterday. Of course, one of -- a huge ally of the United States, one of -- a key trading partner, they're going to now face a 15 percent tariffs on goods imported to the United States. Trump says that America will not face a tariff from them.

But part of the reason this is so interesting is because South Korea had been scrambling to get this deal done before the deadline. Part of that is because they saw their economy actually contract in the first quarter of this year. And initially the president had said he wanted to put a 25 percent tariff starting tomorrow, August 1st, on South Korea. Of course, that would have made things worse for their economy.

And that's kind of what we've seen with some of these other countries, them racing to beat this deadline of 12:01 a.m. on Friday. All to say, still waiting to see if any more deals could potentially come together over the next few hours. But until then, we have still many countries that don't have deals yet and will be facing the full weight of the tariff threats that Trump has issued.

BOLDUAN: Alayna, thank you so much. Big day on all fronts. Let's see how many more deals come in, in the next coming hours. I really appreciate it.

John.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, the family of Virginia Giuffre is speaking out. The new statement from her family to "The Atlantic" comes in the wake of President Trump's comment that she was, quote, "stolen" by Jeffrey Epstein from working at his Mar-a-Lago club spa. Giuffre is one of the most prominent victims of Epstein. She died by suicide at her home earlier this year.

The statement from her brothers and sisters-in-law reads, quote, "it makes us ask if he was aware of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's criminal actions, especially given his statement two years later that his good friend Jeffrey likes women on the younger side. No doubt about it." Her family also said, we, and the public, are asking for answers. Survives deserve this."

We should note, the president has not been accused of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz is with us now.

And, Katelyn, you're following something separate from this, which is a filing by DOJ to get these grand jury transcripts. They were denied in Florida. They're trying here in New York. What is it they're seeking?

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: This is the grand jury transcripts that stood up the indictments against both Jeff Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell in federal court in Manhattan, John. And the bottom line here, when you look at what the Justice Department is arguing to the court so far, a lot of this is already public. That's because the two people who went before the grand jury to tell them about what evidence was in place that the Justice Department had to stand up these indictments, those two witnesses were an FBI agent and a police detective from New York. Someone focused on child exploitation. Those are summary witnesses. They're reading in the evidence that they had collected, including information from victims.

But there's why -- this is why they are already likely much of this is public. What the Justice Department wrote, John, many of the victims whose accounts relating to Epstein and Maxwell that were the subject of grand jury testimony, testified at trial consistent with the accounts described by an FBI agent and the detective from the New York City Police Department in the grand jury. And some have also made public those factual accounts in the course of litigation.

So, now a judge is going to look, is it worth the public interest here to unseal these grand jury records? Should there be redactions? And will there be a disclosure of the transcript of what was said before that grand jury in federal court in New York between 2019 and 2021. That, of course, John, is not the bulk of all of the information the Justice Department has. It is just what was said before that grand jury in court. That, the Justice Department reminds us, is something that was repeated publicly at trial.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, it is not the stuff they control directly either.

Katelyn Polantz for us in Washington. Thank you very much.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: And joining us now is CNN's senior legal analyst, Elie Honig, for much more on this.

I've got a lot of questions around this.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Me too.

BOLDUAN: Oh, thank you. That -- you know, you're the one with the answers, Elie, not the questions.

How is it possible that there's only testimony from two witnesses in these grand jury files?

HONIG: So, the minute we saw that all that DOJ was asking was to release grand jury testimony, we knew that it would be a very thin slice of the pile.

BOLDUAN: You said -- you did say that from the beginning.

HONIG: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

HONIG: Now, two, how do we -- how can they put this sprawling case in front of a grand jury with just two witnesses? The answer is in the rules of procedure around the way federal grand juries work. We -- I was with DOJ for a long time, we had the luxury of, we did not have to call every witness directly into the grand jury. Instead, what you're allowed to do, and what you almost always do, is you just take the FBI agent, who's essentially your partner in building the case, you put him or her on the stand.

[09:10:03]

He or she spends half hour, an hour, could be ten minutes in a smaller case, telling the grand jury, giving them an overview of the case, here's all the evidence we have. Close the door. Grand jury votes, and you have an indictment. And it seems that's all that happened here.

And a point we're seeing, in Katelyn Polantz just pointed this out, one of DOJ's arguments why this should be released is most of this material is already out there, either in the indictment, in the trial, in the civil suit. So, we're going to learn very little, if anything at all, if and when if these come out.

BOLDUAN: But you -- you know this. Doesn't that also mean that the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, would have known that this is all that was in these grand jury transcripts before asking for it to be released?

HONIG: It's a really important point. One hundred percent yes. Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche knew how many transcripts there were and exactly what was in them. They have access to it. And so, when they go to a court a few weeks ago and say, we want you to release all grand jury testimony, I promise you, they knew what was in there. They have to know what was in there because of what has happened. The judge has said, well, I need some more detail from you all about what exactly is in those records. That's how we learned all this. BOLDUAN: Right. Well, Elie, is this just a game then? I mean is this now just being exposed as something of a way of trying to take action and it not being much -- much action at all?

HONIG: Honestly, I think that's a very fair characterization. I think we've now seen that this is much more about the appearance of transparency than actual transparency. Because for all the hubbub and all the times we've seen J.D. Vance and Pam Bondi talking about transparency, we know that they knew they were only asking the judge to release two transcripts, which, by the way, the judge might not even approve, yet they have the entire rest of the file, which is mostly within their unilateral discretion. Yet whenever they're asked about that, we get sort of mush mouth, non-answers. That they could, you know, yes, you have to redact it, but that is in their control.

BOLDUAN: Yes. Right.

HONIG: All that other stuff, generally speaking, they could put that out if they wanted to, but they haven't.

BOLDUAN: And you think the chances are thin that the judge is going to agree?

HONIG: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Maybe we shouldn't even ask about it anymore because it will be so thin. But do you think the chances are thin that the judge will agree to releasing the grand jury?

HONIG: So, a federal judge in Florida has already rejected DOJ's request.

BOLDUAN: And it's the same reasoning that they're offering in New York, right?

HONIG: Yes, there's a little bit broader law in New York. The law is a little bit broader here.

BOLDUAN: OK.

HONIG: But the thing is, there is a specific rule. And it says, here are the narrow circumstances where a judge can release grand jury information. None of those circumstances apply here, right? It's usually if some other prosecutor needs it to build a case, if a defendant needs it to make a motion to dismiss. DOJ even says in their motion to the judge here in New York, we know none of those apply, but we're sort of asking you to recognize this catchall exemption.

And so, we'll see what the judges do. But the judges in New York, it would not shock me at all if they say no as well.

BOLDUAN: What about what Senate Democrats are trying to do, this, like, obscure, what is it, a century old law, rule, tool to force the Justice Department to release what you were just saying, what the Justice Department has access to? HONIG: Yes. Yes, I -- Chuck Schumer, I think, said this is not a gimmick. It's a gimmick. I mean it's not going to work. But I'll tell you why.

First of all, the Biden administration, two years ago, argued to the U.S. Supreme Court that this law actually does not give members of Congress the power to sue to get information. So, start with that.

The other thing is, the Supreme Court did not end up ruling on it. But what's going to happen at a minimum? We already know Senate Republicans are going to fight this. Excuse me, DOJ is going to fight this, which will throw it into the courts, which will mean it's going to be litigated for months, probably years. So, it's a -- it's a nice gesture by Senate Democrats.

But if -- if Democrats in Congress really want to get this done, find a couple of Republicans.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

HONIG: Find Thom Tillis and people like him who will join with you and issue a subpoena. That they can do. That's much more straightforward.

BOLDUAN: Just -- with what's coming to light with this grand jury request process, it just does seem that there needs to be new questions asked of the Justice Department of why don't you release what you can do right now?

HONIG: For sure.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you, buddy.

HONIG: Thanks, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

John.

BERMAN: All right, new details about the Delta flight that experienced dangerous turbulence. Twenty-five people on board were hospitalized. The flight was forced to make an emergency landing. One passenger said he saw, quote, a wine cart just get thrown into the air. The plane was flying from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam, but was diverted to Minneapolis, which is not close to Amsterdam.

Brynn Gingras tracking all of this for us.

Brynn, what have you learned now?

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. And, John, we're still reaching out to the hospitals to see what kind of injuries we're talking about here. But that picture you just showed the viewers, I mean, that says a lot. I mean, as you said, this man describing how a wine cart was thrown in the air.

We know that this flight started in Salt Lake City, was headed to Amsterdam. That's about a nine hour flight. More than 250 people on board. About 40 minutes in, we've learned from the FlightAware data that there was severe turbulence that basically just rocked this plane, causing it to have a quick drop and ascension of about 1,000 feet.

Now, as you saw, we talked to this one passenger. I want you to hear more of how he described what that felt like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM WEBSTER, PASSENGER: And so then what happens is, they come back and then they start serving.

[09:15:03]

And then all of a sudden we hit the craziest turbulence I've ever seen in my life. And I was sitting in 3-J. And I watched a wine cart just get thrown into the air. And, like, stuff just thrown everywhere. People lost phones. Like, people were screaming. It was crazy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Other people describing it as if you didn't have your seatbelt on, people were hitting the top of the plane. That gentleman also saying in our conversation with him, "I felt like the centrifugal force. I was off my seat for like 30 seconds with this kind of turbulence." I mean just incredibly scary moments for these passengers. Luckily, the plane did divert out of that turbulence. It headed to Minneapolis-Saint Paul, where it landed safely. But there were 25 people that were brought to hospitals. Again, we're still trying to assess what sort of injuries those people face, John.

BERMAN: Yes, terrifying. All right, Brynn Gingras, thank you so much.

Today, the NYPD officer who was killed in Monday's Manhattan shooting is laid to rest. New details emerge about where the gunman bought the weapon.

And one of the children of the Colorado dentist convicted of murdering his wife with poisoned protein shakes confronts her father in open court.

And what might be the largest sports memorabilia heist in U.S. history. Why some NBA insiders are alleging millions of dollars' worth of Miami Heat gear from the NBA finals was stolen and sold.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:20:31]

BOLDUAN: New details in the ongoing investigation into the mass shooting in New York City. A senior law enforcement official now tells CNN that hours after the shooting, Las Vegas police got a tip from a licensed firearms dealer who said that he remembered actually seeing the shooter at a gun show last month. The dealer said that the shooter tried to buy an aftermarket trigger assembly for a rifle, but then returned it because he needed money, he said, for 500 rounds of ammunition. The same ammunition used in Monday's shooting, which killed four people.

Soon, one of those victims will be laid to rest. NYPD Officer Didarul Islam.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is in the Bronx, where Officer Islam's funeral will be held today.

Omar, what are you seeing there and what are you hearing from folks?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Yes, so, Kate, we're getting ready to -- for these viewings to begin. Then there will be a service and a procession that we expect to come down this road just behind me. You may be able to see the number of law enforcement, officers that are behind me, getting this area ready. But also here to support one of their own killed in this, 36-year-old Didarul Islam, father of two, immigrant from Bangladesh. His wife, now widow, expecting a third.

And even when his body was brought here initially earlier this week, the support from this community was evident as people were out on the streets watching that transfer happen.

Of course, it is one of many funerals that have either happened or are being planned right now. Yesterday we saw the funeral of Julia Hyman, the Cornell graduate who graduated in 2020. One of the people killed in this shooting. Worked for the company -- the real estate company that owned that office space. Along with Wesley Lepatner, the executive at Blackstone, also a mother, and Aland Etienne, a security officer described as dedicated and a hero.

So, this is one aspect of what's happening right now. People coming to grips with what happened so quickly earlier this week.

We're also following investigative threads that largely at this point are playing out, out of Las Vegas, which is where the shooter lived. You mentioned one aspect of this, that after the shooting happened, a gun dealer at a gun -- remember -- called in a tip saying they remembered seeing the shooter at a gun -- at a gun show buying the ammunition that would then be used in the shooting.

Additionally, investigators have been speaking to this person's boss, or essentially a supervisor, who actually they learned was the person who legally purchased the firearm used and then sold it to the shooter.

So, these are the types of threads that they are continuously pulling on right now. Both that supervisor and the shooter's parents are cooperating with authorities as we understand at this point.

And then the main process playing out here in New York, aside from processing the scene and anything they might be able to glean from that is moving forward with what we may be able to learn on the CTE front, which, as we understand, the medical examiner's office is beginning or expected to begin that process.

So, those are the threads continuing to play out, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Omar, thank you so much for being there. Going to be a very -- another very emotional day in New York City. Thank you.

Ahead, for us, Senate Democrats turning to a little known century old law to try and ramp up more pressure to get the Epstein files from the Justice Department released. We've got much more on that, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:28:13]

BERMAN: We are less than 24 hours away from the deadline that President Trump set for dozens of U.S. trading partners to cut deals or face stiff new tariffs. The president says that without these tariffs the U.S. would be, quote, "dead with no chance of survival." Wall Street insiders have expressed a lot of concern over the tariffs, which Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick says have now proven to be unfounded.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOWARD LUTNICK, COMMERCE SECRETARY: I get all these phone calls from my Wall Street buddies, and they were going crazy. They're like, you don't know what you're doing. You're going to destroy the market.

And let me tell you who the experts are. Donald Trump and his trade team have proven the E.U. pays, Japan pays, Korea pays, Vietnam pays, the Philippines pay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: With us now is Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida.

You just heard Howard Lutnick there, the Philippines pays, the E.U. pays, you know, Japan pays. What do you think that means for the U.S. economy? A, do you think they pay, or who is paying for these tariffs, and, b, what does it mean for the U.S. economy?

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL): Well, John, thanks for having me. And I appreciate the chance to comment on Trump's, you know, frazzled, incoherent tariff policy that is really impacting our ability to make sure that we have certainty for our businesses and certainty in our economy. We can see that with the increase in tariffs so far, the -- the inflation is -- is starting to heat up. On -- on top of that, I mean, Trump is declaring victory in trade deals, when so far these are nothing more than frameworks. The so-called huge trade deal with China is starting to unravel and fall apart.

[09:30:00]

What this does, tomorrow, is slap massive tariffs on country's products across the globe. And that is going to cause nothing but pain for