Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Trump Officials to Hold Dinner on Epstein Strategy Tonight; New York City Shooter Had History of Arrests, Mental Health Issues; U.S. Coast Guard: Oceangate Negligent, Worked to Avoid Oversight, Gifford Fire Becomes California's Largest Wildfire of 2025. Aired 8:00-8:30a ET

Aired August 06, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

MATT EGAN, CNN REPORTER: So late last week, just 38 percent after that Fed meeting. But look at this almost 90 percent now. So that means the president could end up getting the rate cut that he wants. Of course, not necessarily for the reason that he wanted, right? He was hoping the Fed could cut because inflation was low. Instead it's because hiring is low.

So look, I think the bottom line here is a recession. It's not imminent. It's not necessarily a foregone conclusion. I'm old enough to remember just in April when people thought a recession was on the way and then the president blinked on tariffs and the market was off to the races, but I do think that the economic outlook the landscape. It's darkened a lot John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, look doesn't mean it will happen. But certainly what it means is the outlook and the people, you know, the prism with which everyone is looking at the economy radically different than it was just a few days ago.

EGAN: Exactly.

BERMAN: Matt Egan, thank you very much.

Brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight a huddle at the VP's house tonight to talk strategy on a controversy that simply will not go away for President Trump. JD Vance is hosting a meeting to discuss the best way to handle the ongoing Epstein scandal. What other top Trump officials will be at this dinner?

Plus, a political showdown over redistricting in Texas heating up. Texas Governor Greg Abbott now moving to kick the state House's top Democrat out of office as President Trump floats the idea of calling the FBI to bring back Democrats who fled the state.

And it is now the biggest wildfire in California this year. The Gifford fire burning more than 83,000 acres and it is still raging out of control this morning.

I'm Jessica Dean along with John Berman, Sara and Kate are out and this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

We do have some new CNN reporting this morning on the damage control efforts within the Trump administration over the ever-growing Jeffrey Epstein controversy.

According to sources several top Trump officials will gather for dinner this evening for an unusual strategy session. We're told the goal here is to get everyone in the administration on the same page when it comes to responding to the Epstein situation. Vice President J.D. Vance is expected to host the gathering at his official residence and expect to attend, White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Now, you'll remember last month Blanche interviewed Epstein accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. She's currently serving a 20-year sentence after she was convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Epstein to sexually abuse minors.

CNN has now learned Maxwell's interview with Blanche some 10 hours of it was recorded. The Justice Department now weighing whether to release that audio as well as a transcript.

Let's check in now with CNN's Alayna Treene who is at the White House this morning. Alayna, you and our colleagues finding out more about this dinner and it really goes to show you how much this is pervasive in the thinking all around the Trump administration right now.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Oh, absolutely. And I think a key question, of course, Jessica, has been how is the Trump administration going to try and move forward with this?

You know, there are kind of two camps here in the administration. There are the people who believe that this story has largely died down and they're, you know, questioning whether or not to try and resurface this by publishing some of the transcripts of that audio that you described. But then there's also people are saying it's time to, you know, be more proactive rather than reactive and try to take control of the optics of all of this. And that's what's going to be discussed when all of those officials gather at the vice president's residence this evening.

And again, I mean it comes just after we had reported yesterday as well that there are tapes of that interview of Blanche, you know, sitting down over a period of two days where he said that there's more than 10 hours worth of an audio recording that now the Justice Department is going through, they're transcribing it, they're digitizing it, they're redacting some of the victim's names that she had brought up.

And yes, that is the question is whether or not they are going to release it and also the timing of it. Now, I spoke with two senior Trump administration officials who told me that they could publish those materials as early as this week. So again, that's really going to be a main focus of that dinner tonight with all of these top officials, many of whom are leading this strategy on how the administration is handling this.

Another goal of that as well is to try and make sure they are providing a unified front in this response.

Now, also behind the scenes, there have been internal discussions here at the White House, Jessica, about whether to have Blanche, you know, more so capitalizing on maybe this moment of doing a press conference or a high-profile interview. We were told, you know, there have been discussions here about having him possibly go on Joe Rogan's podcast.

I was warned and kind of cautioned that those discussions are very preliminary. It's not really expected to be brought up at this dinner tonight, but it just shows you where their mind is at.

[08:05:00]

And of course, it comes as we know, so many different factors on the outside as well are influencing what they are ultimately deciding.

Just yesterday as well, we saw the House Oversight Committee issue a number of subpoenas for different people, not only in the Trump administration, but you know, previous, you know, officials who had worked in the Justice Department in previous Biden and, you know, even Obama administration officials for any information on Epstein as well.

So all to say, even though some officials here do believe that this story has largely quieted down over the last days, they know it's pervasive and they know they have to deal with it. And so I think a lot of that is going to really be kind of hashed out at this dinner tonight.

DEAN: It'll certainly, yes, be an interesting dinner, especially when you think about this rupture really started when Kash Patel and Pam Bondi, the DOJ, FBI, kind of at odds over how, what to do with this information. Really fascinating stuff. Alayna Treene, thank you so much -- John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, Senate political commentators Karen Finney and David Urban. And David, to the point Jessica was just making there, this dinner party at the Vice President's residence that will include the Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, all three of those people were folks who signed off and implemented this DOJ strategy from now, you know, about basically a month ago to basically say the Epstein case is over.

What does it tell you that they're now dining with the Vice President to try to come up with a new strategy here?

DAVID URBAN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, John, listen, I think that the problem, this problem stems from the label maker, right? So when Pam Bondi met with a group of folks, you know, MAGA influencers in the White House and passed it out -- passed out those white binders that were labeled phase one.

Well, that implied that there was going to be a phase two of this investigation. There's going to be phase two documents -- that they're the binders right there. And so I think that this is a messaging problem, more so than the substance problem. I think that no matter how much information that this administration puts out on this topic, it's not going to be enough.

So I think radical transparency is important here. You know, John, President Trump released JFK files. He released more files on unidentified aerial phenomena, lots of things, and people are still looking for little green men, despite the huge document dumps that were done.

So no matter what the administration does, I don't think there'll be many who are in the Epstein ecosphere, who are, you know, Epstein truthers that are going to be satisfied. So I think this is a very important meeting to try to figure out how to move forward, how to move past this at this point.

BERMAN: Karen Finney, I'm reminded of a quote Paul Begala taught me, probably said by others, that Titanic didn't have a messaging problem and had an iceberg problem. You know, what is the problem that you think they are trying to fix at the vice president's house?

KAREN FINNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, let's be clear. This has nothing to do with the label maker. This has to do with President Trump leaning in on these conspiracy theories and on this story specifically as a way to reach out to, you know, parts of the MAGA infrastructure and to create this expectation.

I want us to remember it's not about little green men. This is about little girls who were raped. That's what this is about.

And the thing that they continuously don't understand is that, so yes, they have a problem in that they handled it horribly and they need to figure out how to fix that. They're not all on the same page. But the other reality is there are, as has been reported, at least 1,000 women who were little girls, basically, when they were sex trafficked, they were sexually assaulted, they were raped.

And so these women deserve justice. And we've heard them be very clear over the last several days. They want the records out. They want their names protected, obviously.

So it's not just about, you know, this is the problem, I think, that the administration has. You know, they were, you know, didn't really understand, you know, basically put his finger in a, you know, socket, essentially, not recognizing that this isn't just about, you know, regular conspiracy theory where there aren't living, breathing human beings who've been impacted, who are waiting to see, is this president going to give them justice?

Or is he going to screw them over the same way they were screwed by Acosta when they made that deal, when he made that deal with Jeffrey Epstein? And remember that they didn't know about and they found out after the fact. And so we're, you know, I think the administration keeps trying to make this about this meeting with Todd Blanche or Ghislaine Maxwell. No, it's about all the files. It's about all the information.

BERMAN: David, I want to give you a chance to respond to that because you have spoken quite a bit about the victims the last few weeks.

URBAN: Yes, listen, I don't disagree with Karen that there are many, many thousand plus young girls victimized here. I don't think that the Trump administration is ignoring them at all. I think, if anything, they're trying to be sensitive, Karen, that there are many, many, you know, thousand plus young girls victimized here.

I don't think that the Trump administration is ignoring them at all. I think, if anything, they're trying to be sensitive to not disclosing that. I do agree with Karen that, you know, these is the subpoenas that came from the House. Everyone was saying, well, who's Trump? You know, President Trump is conspicuously absent. I think the person who's conspicuously absent from that subpoena list is Alex Acosta and the others in that U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami that cut this plea deal.

If you really want to get to the nub of this issue, bring them before the committee, have them testify, peel back the onion and find out why the deal was cut that was cut originally with Epstein and we'll get to the bottom of it. That's the quickest way to get an answer here, I think, much more quickly than anything else. And so I do, I disagree with Karen that this administration is looking past these young victims.

I do agree with Karen that Alex Acosta probably has more answers than anybody else.

BERMAN: Alex Acosta, of course, ended up in President Trump's first cabinet, but he was at that time the federal prosecutor who helped cut that deal to get Jeffrey Epstein, that minimal sentence in Florida.

Let me ask you this. For the administration, Karen, if this is about the victims, why is Ghislaine Maxwell now in this prison camp? Why, after her two-day meeting with Todd Blanche, has she been moved to this prison camp in Texas, described in the papers by some as a country club, in a very rare move, we're led to believe. Sex offenders are almost never moved to places like this. If it's about the victims, why'd she get moved?

FINNEY: Well, exactly. And remember, again, the victims, they didn't know about this sweetheart deal that she got, where she got moved to this cushy, what do they call it, a camp, right?

BERMAN: It is literally a camp.

FINNEY: Where she's there with another high-profile -- yes, literally. And that's what I mean, right? If you're thinking about the victims, then you're thinking about the fact that every move you make has an impact on them.

And, you know, John, I've done work with survivors. And the other thing I want us to remember it's not just the Epstein victims. Any woman who has sex trafficked or has been a survivor, they're being traumatized to some degree by this, too, because they're watching to see what happens.

So it is very suspicious. And it's also suspicious, you know, again, there are the recordings. What was in those recordings? These women deserve to hear about what was in those recordings, because it's about them and their lives.

So, again, the administration has to recognize at this meeting tonight, right, it's not just a problem where they can try to, we'll just figure out what files we can release and it'll all be OK. No, you've got a much bigger situation on your hands, where you also have living, breathing human beings who are watching to see what you do.

And they're going to decide what they're going to do based on that.

BERMAN: You did very quickly. Again, the president just said he doesn't know or didn't know that Ghislaine Maxwell was moved to this prison camp. And if you look at the sign, it literally is called a camp inside Texas.

He doesn't know. Someone's got to know why she was moved, right? Someone's got to know. And I have to believe that Todd Blanche knows.

URBAN: Yes, sure. John, I am certain if Todd Blanche went and interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell, that that he and others, the Department of Justice, are cognizant of the underlying reasons why she was moved.

Make no mistake about it. She's still in prison. She can remain in prison for quite some time. Perhaps the rest of her natural life, I think, you know, her sentence is fairly lengthy.

I do agree again with Karen, amazingly, that that we need radical transparency here, right?

Whatever's in this, whatever's in this document, whatever's in this transcript, this transcribed interview, I think we need to redact the names of those victims. But we should have more transparency. People should understand, again, why we are where we are in this case. And so it never -- something like this never happens again.

Listen, Jeffrey Epstein scheduler has never been called to task. The woman who scheduled all these young women coming to the house.

I mean, there's a lot -- there are more questions than answers in this. And I think it again stems from the initial prosecution. The line attorneys at the U.S. Attorney's Office, Alex Acosta, those folks should be brought forward and say, why did you cut this deal? Why did it seem to get swept away so quickly? I think those are the folks that are most able to answer these questions. And I'd like to hear from the most.

BERMAN: All right, David Urban, Karen Finney, thanks to both of you.

New information this morning about the man who shot and killed four people in New York and his history of mental health issues and repeated encounters with police. Las Vegas police released body cam of several arrests, including a 2023 casino incident.

With us now is CNN chief law enforcement and intelligence analyst John Miller. What's been learned here over the last 24 hours?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, what we've been able to learn is by looking and these encounters with police, you see Tamura at a casino and a dispute over whether he had to show ID to collect his winnings.

[08:15:00]

In another case where he's made statements being suggestive of being suicidal in his apartment, where his mother called police to come there.

And in these cases, in one case, they arrested him for criminal trespass -- the casino -- for refusing to leave. In the case where his mom thought he might be in danger of hurting himself, they got him to go to a hospital and basically go through a psychiatric evaluation.

So in either cases, in the in the suicide case, he admits to having a gun. He says it's in his backpack. They say stay away from that, but they separate him by -- from his guns by getting him to a hospital.

What they didn't do is separate his guns from him after these repeated encounters. Nevada has a red flag law.

BERMAN: So how come?

MILLER: Well, it's complicated. The red flag law is relatively new. The first year they had it, which I think was 2021. I think they used it five times. The state attorney general spent $400,000 to go to Las Vegas and Reno and do training sessions for police from all over the area. Then they used it 27 times that year. So a third of those uses were last year.

The red flag law means that you have to go to a court and get them to agree to remove those guns. And in this case, they got him to go to a hospital.

So it's it's something that they are looking into is what did we do? What could we have done differently? And would it have made a difference?

BERMAN: John Miller, great to see you. Thank you very much -- Jessica.

DEAN: Coming up, a quote, preventable disaster. The U.S. Coast Guard releases its findings in the Titans submersible implosion that killed five people two years ago. The warning signs that were missed or ignored ahead of that disaster.

Plus, new video captures the chaotic moment when barges are set ablaze during a fireworks festival in Japan.

And one of America's favorite spooky families is back on your screen. Season two premiere of Netflix hit show "Wednesday" premieres today. We're going to speak live with Catherine Zeta-Jones as she returns in her role as Morticia Addams.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right this morning, new questions after a damning report into the Titan submersible disaster. Investigators from the Coast Guard say the deaths of five people in the 2023 implosion could have been prevented. They found the sub's operator, Ocean Gate, avoided oversight and had a toxic workplace culture plagued by what they call critically flawed safety practices.

With us now, our friend Miles O'Brien. Miles, great to see you. What jumped out to you in this report on the disaster?

MILES O'BRIEN, CNN AVIATION ANALYST: Well, John, a lot of it had come out over the past couple of years. But this puts a rather grim bow on the whole thing and and seals the deal. This was a completely preventable accident.

And as a matter of fact, in the 300 page report, the Coast Guard indicates that if Stockton Rush, the CEO and pilot of the Titan, had survived, they would have recommended charges of manslaughter be brought against him. The design was flawed. The training was flawed. Inspections were not adequate. Maintenance was not adequate. Communications. All across the board this was a completely preventable accident, really compounds the whole tragedy.

BERMAN: And what does this mean for the future, you know, of submersibles and deep sea exploration, particularly privately owned submersibles like this?

O'BRIEN: Well, the Coast Guard is recommending enhanced regulations which would govern this area, which Ocean Gate was successfully able to navigate some loopholes, essentially, and avoid the kind of scrutiny that you would expect for this kind of operation. It's extremely dangerous endeavor. We're talking about a tremendous amount of pressure, 5,000 pounds per square inch.

When this sub imploded, it was instantaneous death for the five people on board. And it's the kind of thing that cutting corners on design and engineering and procedures, as Ocean Gate did, leads to a very unforgiving outcome, to say the least.

BERMAN: So, Miles, while I have you here, a question in your wheelhouse. Sean Duffy, who is now acting NASA administrator, as well as his other portfolio, announced plans to fast track putting a nuclear reactor on the moon. Why do that?

O'BRIEN: Well, you do need nuclear power if you're going to have an encampment on the moon, because the nighttime on the moon lasts two weeks and solar is just not going to do it for you. If you really want to put people on there and have them live, (INAUDIBLE), there's a nuclear reactor that he's fast tracking for an encampment that doesn't exist. And without the capability of even putting a single footprint on the surface of the planet, it's a little bit the cart before the horse.

But given the context, the geopolitical context with Russia and China talking about doing the same, the idea here might be to create a so- called exclusion zone on the moon because you can't actually declare sovereign turf on the moon. But you could say we have a nuclear power facility and put up a no trespassing sign essentially. It's hard to say, but this is certainly a strange cart before the horse moment.

[08:25:00]

BERMAN: Keep out on the lunar surface. I can't wait to see those signs.

Miles, 2029, I mean, he says he wants this done by 2029. That's like tomorrow. How realistic is that?

O'BRIEN: I wouldn't -- it's not at all. And you have to consider the fact that there are technical problems with the rockets that they envision getting astronauts there. Both the government rocket, the space launch system, Artemis and Elon Musk, SpaceX Starship, which has not yet flown a successful flight, which is integral to that last step to get from the orbit of moon -- of the moon down to the surface.

None of these transportation systems have been proven out yet. So to say we'd have a nuclear power facility there in that time frame is not realistic.

BERMAN: Miles O'Brien, great to see you as always. Thank you -- Jessica.

DEAN: Some wild new video out of Japan this morning, maybe one of the worst places for a fire to break out. A major fireworks festival in Yokohama ended with barges catching on fire. Local media there reporting fireworks landed on one of the launching barges that set two of them on fire. The event organizer told police their launch system went out of control. No word on any possible injuries.

The Gifford Fire in Southern California is now the biggest fire of the year in that state. More than 80,000 acres burned. It's only 9 percent contained this morning.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is joining us now. And Derek, there's so many questions about how to get this under control. What are the conditions like right now?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Jessica, low relative humidity, increasing temperatures, as well as increasing winds are making it very challenging on the ground.

But I want to show you this time-lapse video of firefighters creating what is known as a fire break. It's a very strategic break in the dry vegetation. Once this Gifford Fire reached this particular mountainside, you can see the firefighters actively working to create this fire break. It allows for that break in the natural flow of the wildfire to try and stop its forwards progress. So really fascinating to see them hard at work overnight last night. And then the flames continuing to burn into the overnight period.

And now we have faced the largest fire this year in California. So really saying something but 9 percent containment. That's some minor improvement from yesterday at this time. That's good news. But we've got a tough week ahead of us. And let me show you why.

Look at these relative humidity values. This is the amount of moisture in the atmosphere. We want that to be up closer to the 50, 60, and 70 percent range along the coast. But it isn't further inland where the Gifford Fire is located. You factor that in as well as the increasing winds through the course of this week. And the potential here for explosive fire growth still exists across this area.

Here's a look at the evacuation orders and warnings. Anyone located within this area. This is the actual burn scar right here in the shading of orange. With the shade of red that is by law required to evacuate that particular location.

There's a lot of smoke billowing up from this wildfire as well. And this is impacting the quality of the air from Santa Maria through Los Angeles and as far eastward as Las Vegas. This is what it looked like on the strip yesterday. We're talking about 400 miles away from the Gifford Fire. Smoke starting to degrade the quality of the air in and around Las Vegas.

So we've got the heat on the increase this week. The dry relative humidity and no rain in sight. It is going to be a challenging next few days to try and contain this fire any further -- Jessica.

DEAN: Yes, all right, Derek, thank you so much for walking us through that.

Still ahead, the standoff in Texas intensifies as Governor Greg Abbott asks the state Supreme Court to remove the top Democrat in his state's House from office.

And breaking news. The meeting between President Trump's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin has ended. We'll tell you what we're learning about what went on behind those closed doors.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:30:00]