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Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) On Michigan Gov. Whitmer's White House Visit; U.S. Special Envoy In Moscow As Trump Weighs New Sanctions On Russia; No Signs Of Backing Down In Battle Over Congressional Maps. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired August 06, 2025 - 07:30   ET

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

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[07:30:35]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning the dramatic video of floodwaters tearing through a town in northern India. Oh, so scary. Right now rescue teams are searching for dozens of missing people after that surge of floodwater slammed into the Himalayan village. At least four people are dead.

You see the wall of water and mud, and debris racing down the mountainside through that village. This is the video of the aftermath. You see homes buried under tons of mud. A top official suggesting the flood was set off by a sudden bout of heavy rain.

Army units, tracker dogs, drones and earthmoving equipment have all been deployed to search for any possible survivors and the missing -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. This morning, Vice President J.D. Vance planning an unusual dinner party to coordinate the response to the growing Jeffrey Epstein controversy. Expected to attend, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

I should note CNN broke this story last night. We're trying to learn more details over the course of the day about what exactly will happen inside this meeting, so stand by for that.

This morning we're also hearing from one of the hundreds of women who survived Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. Jess Michaels was living in New York and working as a professional dancer in the early '90s when she says Epstein raped her at the age of 22. She is now slamming the handling of the investigation at all levels.

She spoke to Kaitlan Collins.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESS MICHAELS, SURVIVOR OF ASSAULT BY JEFFREY EPSTEIN, FOUNDER 3JOANNES: There are survivors that have been giving -- sharing their story for decades. Sharing what happened. They did all the right things. They approached the authorities that they were supposed to approach, and it has been ignored over and over and over again.

And one of the things that I see happening -- you know, everyone is listening right now because it's about Epstein and this world of powerful people and wealth. And yet, this is exactly what happens on the local level, on the state level in our country every single day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Jess Michaels is now an advocate for survivors and the founder of 3Joannes, a resource for sexual assault first aid -- Jessica.

DEAN: Michigan's Governor Gretchen Whitmer is using her relationship with the president to get some breaks for her state. She was spotted at the White House Tuesday, and she says she went to lay out the negative impacts of tariffs on the state's auto industry and to ask for a longer grace period before new Medicaid changes kick in. And it's not the first time she made the visit to the White House in recent months.

And joining us now is Isaac Dovere. Isaac, tell us what more is she saying about this. This has certainly been an interesting strategy on her part.

EDWARD-ISAAC DOVERE, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah. Look, it's not question Jessica that Gretchen Whitmer did not want Donald Trump to win last year. She campaigned hard with Kamala Harris, but since then has really taken a different approach than most Democratic leaders and certainly most Democratic governors have to dealing with Trump.

This was her third visit to see the president in the Oval Office yesterday since he was inaugurated to this term. She also spent some time with him when he went to Michigan in April. And she has said that she wants to try to figure out how to work with him. How to appeal to him on things that are important to her state, whether that's talking about tariffs and how they're affecting the auto industry to, as you said, asking for a little bit more time for the state to figure out what to do with these massive Medicaid cuts that are now coming because of the bill that Trump pushed through Congress last month.

So what she said about it in a statement to us is "I will always do whatever I can to make life a little easier for Michiganders and strengthen our economy. We should do everything in our power to lower costs and grow more good-paying jobs in Michigan."

So that's the approach that's she taking here. Like I said, politically, this is putting her in a different place for many of her colleagues.

DEAN: Certainly. And look, remember, as we all do, that Michigan is a very purple state and so that makes, for her, sense.

What do you say -- think is the takeaway though from all of this, Isaac?

DOVERE: Well look, we'll see what it leads to. She was very much pushing for investment in an air base in Michigan in her earlier visits. When Trump went to Michigan to mark his 100 days in office, she was there with him because he was doing a lot of what she wanted to have done.

So the question here becomes is this something that is giving her a good moment in the sun for talking about bipartisan outreach and giving Donald Trump some way of saying the same, or is it something that leads to actual results?

[07:35:05]

She did share a PowerPoint with the president to talk about all these things. We'll see what he responds to on that and whether it puts Michigan in a different place than, let's say, similar states geographically like Illinois where the governor there, J.B. Pritzker, has been a pretty harsh critic of Donald Trump in a very different way from what Gretchen Whitmer has been doing.

DEAN: Yeah, it has certainly been starkly different.

Isaac Dovere, thank you so much for your reporting. We really appreciate it -- John.

BERMAN: All right. With us now Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, a Democrat from Michigan. Congresswoman, thanks so much for being with us.

How do you feel about your governor going to the White House to discuss these things? And in your experience how receptive is President Trump to these entreaties?

REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI) (via Webex by Cisco): So good morning, John, and I want to tell you something. I think the governor is doing what a governor is supposed to do. The first job that they have is to protect the people of our state.

And she has gone in, and she has had candid conversations with him. She is not giving up on anything that she believes in. But we have had a number of very difficult situations.

She's not only gone in to talk about Selfridge Air Force Base, which I might add we tried for four years to get some product for and to save, and Donald Trump did. So I've got to give her credit where credit is due and give President Trump credit where credit is due that Air Force base is something that is very important to our state.

But she's gone in -- and we had terrible ice storms that did extensive damage in northern Michigan. We needed FEMA help. He listened. She got FEMA help. She went back in to talk about more is needed yesterday.

She went in to talk about -- tariffs are really hurting our industry. And I think sometimes tariffs get so political. I mean, tariffs are a tool in a toolbox. They're helping some people. They're -- the uncertainty of it is hurting the suppliers terribly. Some of the OEMs are trying to figure out what their product plan is -- the most recent, 15 percent. Japan is giving foreign manufacturers and now Korea an advantage over us. I think the president listens to her. She went in to have that pointblank conversation. And there were other issues that are very much impacting our state. She is someone he listens to.

Talking to my own colleague, Lisa McClain, I know he does. Lisa believes -- I'm not sure what I think because I haven't had the direct conversation -- that he doesn't want to hurt people on Medicaid. Now I think the Medicaid bill -- that big, bad bill is going to hurt people. But if Gretchen Whitmer can get through to him on what is really going to happen, I'm all for her going in there. He listens to her.

I respect her. She'll be tough. She will take him on. She won't stand up for -- I won't use the word I want to use right now because we're on morning television. She's a tough governor who is also fighting for the people of her state.

BERMAN: You can use whatever language you want. FCC rules don't apply to cable, certainly not in the morning.

Congresswoman, I do want to as you about the breaking news overnight. CNN reporting that Vice President J.D. Vance is hosting this dinner party at the vice president's residence tonight that includes Susie Wiles, the chief of staff; the attorney general; the deputy attorney general; the FBI director. And the focus will be on strategy to handle the Epstein scandal. How to coordinate a response.

And my question to -- and I know you've met with at least one victim here. You know, to coordinate this for whose benefit exactly?

DINGELL: Well, my guess is that the realization that Epstein is not going to go away may have, like, really begun to settle in. And the question is how are they are going to manage it going forward. The people that he's bringing together -- I wish Susie Wiles had more control of how this all began, quite frankly. She is a strong woman. I haven't met her yet, but I have a great deal of respect for her.

But the -- look, this is an issue that's not going to go away. When we return in the fall it is going to be front and center in more than one way. And it's one that was brought on by the president himself saying he was going to be transparent on these files. The attorney general saying these files are sitting on my desk. Creating a set of expectations that they didn't meet. So people are upset about it.

I do want to talk about the survivors. I will -- I think one of the reasons that the person came to me is that I've worked with domestic survivors and sexual survivors, unfortunately, much of my life having lived in a home that was a difficult home. And unfortunately, I dealt a lot with both Michigan State survivors and many males that were survivors from the University of Michigan.

[07:40:00]

And this person is -- and it was totally traumatic for these young athletes at Michigan State and at Michigan, so I'm used to talking to them. I know how they feel. They don't want their names out there. They don't want to be victimized all over again. If you are a victim of Jeffrey Epstein, you were involved in this national scandal. People -- nobody cares about you. They want to create the sensationalism. And you don't know who is going to go after you. You don't know if your life is going to be threatened. The horrific kind of social media that follows. People trying to find out your name.

These people want and deserve privacy. They are scared to death, and they don't like the way it's being handled.

BERMAN: So with that in mind -- specifically, with everything you just said in mind, I want you to listen very carefully to the words that President Trump used just yesterday to describe his feelings about this two-day meeting between the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and Ghislaine Maxwell who is convicted of conspiring with Jeffrey Epstein to sexually abuse minors.

This is what the president says he thinks that meeting was about -- listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I didn't talk to him about it, but I will tell you that whatever he asked would be totally appropriate and it's not an uncommon thing to do that. And I think he probably wants to make sure that, you know, people that should not be involved or aren't involved are not hurt by something that would be very, very unfortunate and very unfair to a lot of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: People who are not involved or shouldn't be involved are not hurt. It would be unfair to a lot of people.

Do you think he's talking about the victims who you were just expressing concern about, or does it sound more like he's talking about some of the powerful people that may be named in some way in the Epstein files?

DINGELL: I would like to think from the heart and soul of mine with compassion and empathy that he cared about the survivors. I suspect that I'm more worried about names that may drip out -- businessmen, maybe politicians, and others that may or may not be on that list. So, you know, I think you are innocent until proven guilty in this country. We do know that there are grand juries where people are not found guilty.

But the way that this has been handled from start to finish -- and I'm going to say by start of finish from this administration who talked about it, made promises, but through -- you know, showed files and made a lot of -- it created a lot of expectations -- has created this.

And what I'm going to ask this morning as someone who has spent a lifetime of knowing what it is like -- I was domestic. I lived in a home with domestic violence. I've worked with people that have been sexually assaulted. I wish people would think about they don't want to be called victims. They are survivors. Let these survivors go on with their life.

And this particular situation is so loaded. There are people with so much hate on all sides. They need to try to get on with their lives. Put this behind them. And what is going on now is bringing up bad memories. It is making them targets. They fear for their lives.

BERMAN: Congresswoman Debbie Dingell from Michigan. We appreciate your time this morning. Thank you so much -- Jessica.

DEAN: This morning nerve-wracking video of a very close call between an NHL mascot and a bear. That's right, you heard that right. It happened during a promotional video shoot in Alaska.

CNN's Andy Scholes is joining us. Andy, I saw this video this morning.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah.

DEAN: That bear is so close to them and the mascot. There's a lot going on here.

SCHOLES: Yeah, I would have ran. I'm not sure that's what you're supposed to do if a brown bear is coming at you, but I would have. I probably would have panicked much more than these guys did. Just not a normal day at the arena for the Seattle Kraken mascot Buoy.

So he was out on a promotional video shooting Alaska along with Kraken forward John Hayden to promote youth hockey. And as part of the video they were fly fishing at Katmai National Park when a brown bear saw them. And that brown bear must like Krakens because at one point he charged at Buoy the mascot.

Here's what Hayden had to say about the whole encounter.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN HAYDEN, FORWARD, SEATTLE KRAKEN: I want to blame it on Buoy. They were pretty interested in his whole look. So we got out of it OK, but it was -- it was a close call.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Yeah, bears very common in the park and the group did have guides with them for safety. But props to them for remaining calm.

All right, ESPN, meanwhile, announcing a landmark deal with the NFL to acquire the NFL Network and the RedZone channel. In return, the NFL will get a 10 percent equity stake in ESPN. NFL Network will be integrated into ESPN's upcoming direct-to-consumer streaming product and will continue to be available on traditional paid TV providers.

[07:45:05]

ESPN is also acquiring the NFL's Fantasy product, making ESPN Fantasy Football the official game of the NFL.

The agreements between ESPN and the NFL are subject to approval from the owners and government regulators.

All right, to baseball where ace catcher Shea Langeliers made history against the Nationals. He hit not one, not two, but three home runs. He went five for six in the game. And Langeliers is the first player since 1900 to hit three homers in his first-ever game in the leadoff spot. Langeliers is now at 22 homers this season. The 27-year-old also had a three-homer game last season.

A's won big last night 16-7.

And finally, fans often become unhappy with the coach of their team and want them removed from the job. Well, some soccer fans in Lithuania taking their displeasure to another level. They all threw luggage onto the pitch right after kickoff because they want the coach to pack his bags and leave. That's a lot of luggage on the field there.

The team is in seventh place out of 10 in the league they play in. The coach -- you see him -- he had a little applause there for all the fans throwing the luggage.

The coach there, Jessica, has not resigned. And I'm not sure you want to set that precedent of oh, you throw the luggage, I'm just going to resign. But it's certainly creative there from the fans in Lithuania.

DEAN: The polite clapping there is -- hey, he is clapping back. What are we going to say?

All right, Andy. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

SCHOLES: Yeah.

DEAN: Still ahead recession warning sign. Why the latest jobs report has economists growing concerned.

Also, after the opening of the so-called "Alligator Alcatraz" in Florida, the Department of Homeland Security announcing a new migrant facility in Indiana, calling it the "Speedway Slammer." Why we could see more of these opening soon.

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[07:51:10]

BERMAN: All right. Breaking this morning, we want to get right back to Russia where at this moment we believe that U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff is meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin. This comes at a crucial pivot point. The president has claimed that if Russia does not make substantial movements towards peace by Friday he will push for new sanctions. So within the next few hours we really could get a sense of which direction this relationship is going.

We have CNN senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen standing by outside the Kremlin in Moscow. Fred, what's the latest?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, we've been outside the Kremlin here for several hours now, John. You can see behind me the lovely St. Basil's Cathedral and next to that, of course, the Spasskaya Tower, one of the most important and most well- known towers of the Kremlin.

It is, of course, behind those walls that we understand that currently, Steve Witkoff, the president's special envoy, and Russian President Vladimir Putin are meeting to try and iron out some of these differences and see whether or not those sanctions that the president has been talking about -- and, of course, also those tariffs against possible trading partners of Russia who are buying Russian oil and gas -- whether all of that can be staved off or whether or not there could be additional confrontation between the United States and Russia.

I would say that Steve Witkoff has been in there now -- there was some initial video of him meeting Vladimir Putin -- maybe for two, maybe for 2 1/2 hours. So there clearly is a lot to talk about.

When we say the two men greet each other it was clear that the relations seem to be very friendly with very friendly greetings.

One of the things that we were looking at and that we saw -- that we noticed, John, when they met is that there were several people in the room with Vladimir Putin, one of them being Yuri Ushakov who is a senior Kremlin aide and certainly one of Vladimir Putin's most important advisers, especially when it comes to Ukraine and when it comes to relations with the United States.

So that's something that we've seen in the past when Steve Witkoff has been here. That's he's sort of been on his own, but Vladimir Putin has been flanked by some of his most senior advisers.

And, of course, the issues -- you mentioned them -- are very much out here. The president of the U.S., President Donald Trump, saying that his patience is wearing more than thin as far as a ceasefire in Ukraine is concerned.

The Russians, so far, not saying that they're willing to do very much to try and get that ceasefire going. They say that they want a broader peace agreement. But judging from the negotiations that have been taking place in the past, it's unclear how quickly or if that could happen at all.

Certainly, right now, the vibe that we've been getting here on the ground in Moscow is that expectations for this meeting, while it is very important, have not been very high, John.

BERMAN: That's why we are standing by for the readouts from this meeting from both sides -- both from the U.S. and Russia.

Fred, it's great to have you there as this meeting continues. Please keep us posted as to what you hear. Thank you -- Jessica.

DEAN: In Texas' redistricting standoff, state Democrats are showing no signs of returning home as Republicans escalate their threats. Governor Greg Abbott now asking the State Supreme Court to remove the chairman of the state's Democratic caucus from office. And it all comes as the state's lieutenant governor predicts the state Senate will be able to pass a new redistricting map next week.

CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Austin with more -- Ed.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Texas Democrats have broken quorum here in this redistricting fight two days in a row and it appears that will simply continue to go on. But the escalation of the fight between Democrats and Republicans here continues to escalate.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott, on Tuesday afternoon, filed a suit with the Texas Supreme Court urging the court to remove the chairman of the Democratic caucus, Rep. Gene Wu, from office. This is real first concrete steps we've seen taken by the governor as he has been issuing these threats to have the lawmakers who fled the state removed from office. And he's asking the court to make a ruling on this before Thursday.

[07:55:00]

Representative Gene Wu responded by saying that he will not bow down to Greg Abbott's message here. He says that history will judge this moment. It will show a governor who used the law as a weapon to silence his people.

So this is a legal fight that will be extremely intense and dramatic if it moves forward.

And it also comes as the attorney general in Texas is also preparing, he says by Friday, to begin the process through the court system to try to have these Texas Democrats removed from office. But many legal experts we've talked to say this is really on murky legal ground and it's not clear if the courts or the Republicans will be able to follow through with this threat. But it is still something that is looming very large over this fight between Democrats and Republicans here in Texas.

And this is all part of this redistricting fight as the Democrats -- more than 50 of them remain out of Texas and trying to build support not just against the Republican movement for this redistricting bill here in Texas but also among Democratic state legislators -- legislatures across the country to build momentum for those states to also carry through with their own redistricting plans if Texas is going to follow through here.

It does not appear in any kind of way we're seeing any side here in this redistricting fight back down at this point.

Ed Lavandera, CNN, Austin, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Ed, thank you.

And new this morning, the Trump administration announcing a new migrant detention facility in Indiana. They're calling it the "Speedway Slammer." Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem says the facility is expected to expand detention space by 1,000 beds.

And the announcement comes a month after the opening of that facility in Florida that's been dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," which has raised alarm among immigrant advocates over conditions there.

This morning authorities in St. Louis are investigating an apparent hate crime. They say several cars were intentionally set on fire in the same area. Officers found what is described as antisemitic graffiti written in the roadway. And according to local reports, the graffiti read "Death to the IDF." That's Israel's national military.

New York City health officials have confirmed a third death related to Legionnaire's Disease stemming from stagnant water inside cooling towers on top of Harlem apartment buildings. More than 60 additional cases have been confirmed in the area. The disease cannot be transmitted from person-to-person, and it is treatable with antibiotics. But if it's let untreated it can cause shock and multi- organ failure.

Health officials are urging residents to be on the lookout for flulike symptoms. That includes cough, fever, headaches, muscle aches, and shortness of breath -- John.

BERMAN: All right. This morning recession warnings. We are hearing from analysts now following that very gloomy jobs report. Major downward revisions for May and June showing anemic job gains then.

Let's get right to CNN's Matt Egan. You've been talking to people, Matt. What are they saying?

MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Well, John, it does feel like the entire economic narrative has shifted, right? Earlier this summer the U.S. economy -- it looked resilient. The job market seemed like it was just unstoppable. But now, for the first time in a long time, the job market does look weak.

And so that July job report -- that was a shocker, right, not just because it caused President Trump to fire the leader of the agency that puts out the report but also because it showed that job growth has slowed to a crawl. The three-month average for job growth just 35,000. That is the slowest since mid-2020. Of course, that was during the once-in-a-century health crisis.

And the other thing here that really stood out were those big negative revisions, right? We saw that the U.S. economy actually had about a quarter of a million fewer job during the months of May and June than we previously realized.

And big revisions -- they do happen as new numbers come in. But Goldman Sachs found that this was the biggest two-month negative revision since 1968 unless you include recessions, right? So all the other times we saw a revision like this we were in an economic downturn. Now, it's not just about the job report. There's a number of other yellow lights flashing on this economy. Consumer spending -- it's the biggest driver of growth. It has been soft. We've seen that inflation is going the wrong direction. It's heating up to a four-month high. And that GDP report last week -- it did signal that the U.S. economy is losing some momentum.

And so that is why we are starting to hear some economists, some investors start to use the dreaded "R" word again, right, recession. Moody's economist Mark Zandi -- he said he thinks that the U.S. economy is on the precipice of a recession. Larry Summers says we could be kind of in this stall speed economy that is vulnerable to a recessionary shock.

Wall Street is betting that Jerome Powell and his colleagues at the Fed -- they're going to come to the rescue. The odds of an interest rate cut have surged.

BERMAN: Sure.

EGAN: So late last week just 38 percent after that Fed meeting. But look at this.