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News Conference Regarding the Fort Stewart Shooting; Conor Fitzpatrick is Interviewed about Lawsuit Against the Trump Administration. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired August 07, 2025 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... O apostrophe c-o-n-n-o-r. They will be ready to speak to you with regarding the shooting that occurred here yesterday at Fort Stewart.

I'd like to now pause and I'll turn it over to them.

DANIEL DRISCOLL, SECRETARY OF THE ARMY: Thank you all for being here today.

I am Dan Driscoll, secretary of the United States Army.

We had two main goals today. It was to come out and, first off, to support the victims and their families and the community that experienced the shooting tragedy yesterday. And the second one was to recognize the heroism, the courage and the selfless service of six soldiers who put themselves in harm's way yesterday to take care of their fellow soldiers.

I want to start off by saying, we're standing at the brigade headquarters of the unit that had -- had the shooting yesterday. And this morning, if you were here, what you would have seen is, you would have seen a lot of soldiers out doing physical training and PT. That is incredibly important to us because we are highlighting the resilience of the American soldier. We are showing their strength and their courage under fire. They are going to spend the remainder of the day able to meet with counselors, but also getting back to their jobs, serving the American people.

We spent this morning. General Lubas and I, visiting some of our soldiers who are in the hospital and meeting with their families. We talked to doctors. And one of the things that I can say unequivocally is that the fast action of these soldiers, under stress and under trauma and under fire, absolutely saved lives from being lost. On behalf of President Trump, Vice President Vance, Secretary Hegseth, they wanted me to tell these soldiers, their family and this community that the entire federal government stands by and stands ready to care for these soldiers and their family.

One of the more important things we were able to do this morning, though, is to recognize the heroism of these six soldiers. One of the soldiers tackled the person. So, just think about this, they were unarmed and ran out and tackled an armed person who they know -- knew was actively shooting their buddies, their colleagues, their fellow soldiers.

Another soldier jumped on top of the person to subdue them until federal law enforcement was able to arrive. The other soldiers immediately, using their training that they had developed over years and years, started to take care of mass casualties. The hospital they took them to in March had just run a mass casualty exercise for a moment just like this.

The Army does not want these moment -- moments to happen, but it stands ready when necessary to act and care for those when it does. The Army this year is 250 years old. That is one year older than this nation itself. These American soldiers highlight exactly what the Army has meant to this country. It has been there in some of the most traumatic moments of this nation's history. And it has been resilient, stood strong and acted on behalf of American citizens.

I just want to thank this community. It is absolutely unbelievable to me the speed with which law enforcement officers showed up, paramedics showed up. We had so many people showing up within the first hour that we actually had to stage some of them away. We are so grateful for this community and all that it does for our soldiers and their families.

The investigation is ongoing. I imagine a lot of the questions we'll take will be related to that. We will not be able to answer some of those questions, but we are going to do a deep, hard investigation. It will be -- the findings will be transparent. They will be released to the American public. We commit to you that anything we discover during the investigation that can make this base and other bases like it safer, we will act on as quickly as possible.

Now, I'm happy to take questions.

Standing beside me I have General Lubas, the division commander, and Special Agent O'Connor from Criminal Investigation Division.

So, let's kick off with some questions.

REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, Robin (INAUDIBLE).

DRISCOLL: Hey, Robin.

REPORTER: Hi.

Will there be any efforts by the DOD to harden the entrances to installations to look for things like personal weapons coming in and out of the base?

DRISCOLL: We are constantly looking at our security protocols on all of our bases, both in CONUS and around the world. We absolutely will want to learn from this investigation. We do not want something like this to ever happen again on an Army base. And so, if there are things we can do to improve safety, we will take those steps. But right now we're really early in the investigation.

REPORTER: Mr. Secretary. DRISCOLL: Yes.

REPORTER: Faith with (INAUDIBLE).

DRISCOLL: Hey, Faith.

[09:35:01]

REPORTER: Thanks for being here.

How did the suspect get a gun, his personal gun, past security onto the base, into his workplace?

DRISCOLL: Faith, as I just remarked to your colleague, we are still early in the investigation. The shooting happened yesterday. CID, I can have him come up and tell you what we've learned so far. Our commitment is, what we learn will be disclosed. It will be transparent. Justice will be brought on behalf of these victims and the community that was harmed.

Do you want to step up.

RYAN O'CONNOR, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, CRIMINAL INVESTIGATIVE DIVISION: Hey, good morning. As the secretary mentioned, this is still an active investigation. We are still processing the scene with all the resources and capabilities that the Army's Criminal Investigation Division has to offer, which is immense. We have surged people from this entire region. In light of the fact that we're still processing, I'm going to have to defer that question for now.

REPORTER: Is it normal to have a personal gun on base here?

O'CONNOR: No, that would be a violation.

DRISCOLL: And next question.

REPORTER: Mr. Secretary, Ryan Young from CNN.

DRISCOLL: Hey, Ryan.

REPORTER: How are you doing?

You got a chance to meet with the families. And, obviously, we won't have that chance. You got a chance to meet with them, talk to them. You seem very proud of how everyone reacted. Can you tell us what that was like meeting the families? What state are they in right now? Share with the public who's concerned about these folks who've, obviously, didn't deserve to get shot.

DRISCOLL: Ryan, it was heartbreaking sitting in there and -- and seeing their soldier, their daughter, sitting behind them, struggling. Our hearts broke with them. We tried to hug them. We tried to convey from the president and the vice president and the secretary of defense that our entire nation mourns with them. We stand behind them.

It has been only a couple of hours for them. I think they are still processing through it. But what we wanted to convey is, we will be here with them every single step of the way. The United States Army is committing every resource we need to, to get these soldiers back into their formations as quickly as we possibly can.

And then one of the things that we had said at the -- the meeting earlier with the soldiers from this unit is, General Lubas and I were reflecting on this in the car ride. These kind of moments, especially if you've deployed, you've gotten to see them more frequently, the -- the trauma from them often doesn't hit for weeks or months on it. Like it doesn't come as quickly as you might think. And so, what we tried to encourage for all of our soldiers is to speak up, lean on each other, lean on your leadership, and we will provide the resources, the care and the love that they need to recover.

REPORTER: General, if you could (INAUDIBLE) real quick, just about your time being with the families as well.

BRIG. GEN. JOHN LUBAS, FORT STEWART COMMANDER: Yes, sir. Thank you for the question.

It's heartbreaking. It's painful to see them struggling with a -- with a wounded family member. They expressed that they were incredibly proud of their soldier, as we are. And they ask for prayers. So, we appreciate all the prayers that have been sent our way. And we would ask you to keep them coming.

Thank you.

REPORTER: General Lubas, Krea Streamer (ph) with NBC News.

DRISCOLL: Next question.

REPORTER: Yes, Skyler Henry with CBS News here.

Two questions (INAUDIBLE) can you describe the condition of those who were wounded? I know that there might have been some updates. I know, General, you said that they -- they are expected to be OK. But just the nature of the injuries and the like.

LUBAS: Yes, sir, thank you.

Of the five wounded soldiers, three were released yesterday, which is amazing considering the circumstances and the ranges at which they were engaged. One soldier remains as an inpatient here at Winn Army right here on Fort Stewart. She's doing very well, in high spirits. Of course, she's got a little bit of a road to recovery. We're hopeful she may be released as early as this weekend, but that will just depend on how things heal up over the next couple days. And we have one soldier that remains at Savannah Memorial Community Hospital, who I visited with the secretary this morning. She's got a little bit longer road to recovery. The doctors are very positive, but I think it's going to take her a bit longer to -- to recover. But they're very hopeful she's going to make a complete recovery.

REPORTER: General Lubas, this is Krea Streamer with NBC News. I know you guys are prepared for scenarios like this when you go to

war zones or on combat deployments, but have you gotten an opportunity to speak to some of the soldiers in this unit about how they're processing that this attack occurred from one of their own? And how are you processing that as a leader?

LUBAS: Yes, I think we train for this on the battlefield. And it's a different situation when it happens on an installation with one of your own. So, I think, over the upcoming days and weeks, as the secretary said, people are going to process this and work through this at different rates. And we know we've got to keep a very close eye on them. We've got to wrap our arms around them.

We've got a great community here, a great response, as you saw from all the -- the folks, the secretary recognized this morning, the support from the local community, just amazing. So, we feel that this demonstrates that we trained internally for the worst case scenario, and our doctors and our medics and our soldiers responded exactly as we trained them to do. And now our job is to make sure that we care for them as they -- as they work through this.

Thank you.

[09:40:00]

DRISCOLL: And I just want to recognize, behind me to the right, these are the six soldiers we were able to recognize today. And they, I mean, this is sincerely as humanly possible, I -- I and the administration, President Trump, could not be more proud of them. They are everything that is good about this nation. They are the best among us in our country. They are the best among us in the Army. They acted in a way that I think all of us hope we would under fire, but they did.

And so, we are just so incredibly proud of them. We are so grateful for them. And one of the things we told them, and their colleagues, is that we will stand with them as long as we need to, to get them back where they need to be.

REPORTER: Russ Bynum, the AP.

Can you all give us a sense going forward what's going to happen next as far as the criminal justice process goes? Has the suspect been actually charged yet? And if so, what charges is he facing? The military system works a little differently.

DRISCOLL: It -- it does.

O'CONNOR: The suspect is currently in custody and we are working through the military uniform code of military justice process at this time.

REPORTER: Is he going to be transferred to a military detention facility?

O'CONNOR: That is likely. REPORTER: Do you know when or which one?

O'CONNOR: No.

REPORTER: You also talked about processing the scene. Can you tell us what's going on today with processing the scene? I imagine (INAUDIBLE) showcasing the pictures. Can you just describe that for all of us?

O'CONNOR: Certainly a tragic scene where our soldiers -- soldiers train. But the processing of a scene would normally encompass digital evidence, forensic evidence, trace evidence, all of those things, which our team is currently doing.

REPORTER: And was this captured on video since it was inside the facility?

O'CONNOR: I can't comment on that at this moment.

REPORTER: OK.

REPORTER: Just a point of clarification (INAUDIBLE). Yesterday we were told you -- the chain of command was not aware of the arrest for the DUI off base. Can you explain if you had been aware, what the procedure would have been. Would he have been disciplined? Would he have been taken out?

DRISCOLL: Because we are one day into the investigation, we can't reveal those kinds of things. I think what we try not to do is speculate or do hypotheticals. And so, each soldier, each instance, we take very seriously. Something like a DUI or another issue that could occur in the community, that impacts how we treat that soldier in our formations.

We want holistically powerful and controlled and competent soldiers. And so, we are constantly reflecting on our mechanisms and procedures as an Army, so that we're able to capture that information and to hold soldiers accountable.

REPORTER: Are they usually disciplined after an arrest?

DRISCOLL: It varies based off the case. I think -- any other questions?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've got time maybe for one more question.

DRISCOLL: Yes.

REPORTER: Bill Kovach from "The Atlanta Journal-Constitution."

General, could you speak at all, just to give some insight at all, on acts of bravery that you've heard about in this episode?

LUBAS: Yes. Sure.

I think as the secretary mentioned, we have six incredible soldiers behind us, but this is just representative of the larger formation. Once -- once the shooter was identified and a threat was identified, we had soldiers that immediately raced and tackled that soldier, wrestled the gun away, subdued him. A second, noncommissioned officer jumped on top to further restrain him until the police could arrive.

And then, simultaneously, no one hesitated. Most of these soldiers behind me and others in the crowd immediately started applying first aid and, most importantly, stopped the bleeding. And when we spoke to the surgeons in the hospital, it was clear that the actions they took, primarily stopping that bleeding before they were loaded up into ambulances and quickly evaced to Winn Army Medical, certainly saved their lives.

REPORTER: Are they back to work today?

LUBAS: I'm sorry, are who back to work?

REPORTER: Are they back to work or are they taking some time off?

LUBAS: Well, today is a day that we focused on bringing the brigade and the unit together so they could support one another so we could, of course, get right back at it. But it's also a day where we're going to focus on ensuring that they're getting the support they need.

Thank you.

REPORTER: General Lubas, can you give us a general sense of how long this all happened, from that first shot fired, when your brave soldiers were able to tackle the gunman?

LUBAS: I can. It was an incredibly fast response. And I do attribute this to the training that this installation has done and the teams here have done.

So, at approximately 10:56, the incident was reported. And that went out over sort of an all calls net. That triggered a lot of responses. That triggered our installation emergency medical services, our police, our fire, our emergency medical services to respond. But it's also monitored by the local community. And then we requested assistance.

At 11:04, we locked down -- initial lockdown of the installation. So, that was pretty quick. That wasn't me. That was the director of DES and the garrison commanders that immediately made that right call and that decision.

At about 11:09, emergency personnel were dispatched to treat the wounded.

[09:45:04]

At 11:35, the shooter was apprehended by the soldiers and the law enforcement, several behind us and several in the crowd that we recognized earlier. So, really what that means, we had about 13 minutes after that first report. We already had people, ambulances, fire, fish and game, military police responded and were on the scene. And then we had local support from the amazing community here. We had the first SWAT team arrive from off post within 20 minutes on site, which is truly incredible.

So, were incredibly grateful for the support from the community. I'm incredible for our leadership that trained our soldiers to react this way. And then, as the secretary said, we're incredibly proud of the soldiers themselves.

Thank you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Unfortunately, that is all the time that we have. Thank you guys for coming.

We are going to stand by, I think we have --

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You've been listening to a press conference from Fort Stewart in Georgia following the mass shooting there. Five people wounded in that. The Army secretary presented medals, along with the commanding general there, to six soldiers who helped stop this shooting.

We learned nothing new about the motive of the suspect, who is in Army custody and will be processed by military justice we are led to believe by the statements there.

I think the one bit of concrete news, we got the condition of some of the people who were wounded. Three soldiers have now been released. One is still an inpatient and said to be doing well. Led to believe that that patient may be released shortly. One other, were told, recovering, but with a bit of a longer recovery period ahead. But three released, the others improving.

Stay with us. We've got much more ahead.

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[09:51:27]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Students at Stanford University are fighting back against President Trump. The student run newspaper is now suing the Trump administration over its aggressive moves to target and deport pro-Palestinian activists. The lawsuit argues that the secretary of state's actions revoking student visas and kicking foreign students out of the country is unconstitutional and has led to censorship. I'll read for you what the lawsuit says, in part. "Secretary of State Marco Rubio and the Trump administration are trying to turn the inalienable human right of free speech into a privilege contingent upon the whims of a federal bureaucrat, triggering deportation proceedings against non-citizens residing lawfully in this country for their protected political speech regarding American and Israeli foreign policy."

Joining us right now is the attorney representing Stanford University's student newspaper, Conor Fitzpatrick. He's the supervising senior attorney with the nonprofit group Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, who brought the suit.

Thanks for being here, Conor. So, what the -- the student run newspaper is -- is "The Stanford

Daily." What do -- do they say? What do the people involved with the paper say that the Trump administration's policies have done to their staff? Why are they bringing this case?

CONOR FITZPATRICK, ATTORNEY REPRESENTING STANFORD UNIVERSITY'S STUDENT NEWSPAPER: So, over the last five months, what we've seen in this country is an unprecedented assault on the free speech rights of non- citizens. We've seen non-citizens be targeted for deportation based on nothing more than attending protests and writing an op-ed in their student newspaper.

And what we're hearing, not only from our clients, but from students, faculty and lawfully present non-citizens across the country is that it has instilled such a sense of fear in them. They are afraid to criticize American and Israeli foreign policy because they are afraid that they are going to be kicked out of the country for it. And that is a profoundly un-American approach to free speech.

BOLDUAN: What are you asking for to happen in this -- with this lawsuit now?

FITZPATRICK: Our lawsuit attacks the statutory underpinnings of what Secretary Rubio is relying on. He's relying on two different statutes. One allows him to revoke a non-citizen's visa at any time for any reason, and the other allows him to deem someone a threat to the foreign policy of the United States, based on their protected speech, and kicked them out of the country. But the First Amendment stands in the way.

The First Amendment says that Congress shall make no law abridging the right to freedom of speech. And that right, we know from the Supreme Court's decision in 1945, applies to both citizens and non-citizens.

BOLDUAN: Do you -- are you challenging Secretary Rubio's overall authority when it comes to visas and revoking visas and when it comes to this kind of -- the foreign policy of the United States national security, or do you say -- do you think he -- the secretary of state is abusing that authority?

FITZPATRICK: So, it's a little bit somewhere in the middle there. We are not -- we are -- what we are saying is that he cannot exercise this authority on the basis of protected speech. If what the noncitizen is saying is something that if you or I were to go to a park and say at a protest or one of our friends and the First Amendment would protect it, if a noncitizen says the same thing, they can't be kicked out of the country for it. In the United States, you shouldn't have to show your passport to voice an opinion.

BOLDUAN: The response from the government is likely summed up, and I was looking back at an op-ed that Secretary Rubio published some months back, and in it he said, "as secretary of state, I'll continue exercising my authority to support President Trump's zero tolerance approach to foreign nationals who abet terrorist organizations or participate in activities that threaten our national security or compromise a compelling foreign policy interest." [09:55:05]

That -- obviously, you are challenging that and you disagree with that. What's your response to that?

FITZPATRICK: There are already statutes on the book, and rightly so, that allow noncitizens to be deported if they have actually engaged in, for example, material support for terrorism or actual terrorism. But what this administration is doing, and what our lawsuit is challenging, is the idea that an idea can be sufficiently dangerous to justify your expulsion from the country, and that's just un-American. And we know that from Thomas Jefferson. He used his first inaugural address to defend the free speech rights of people who called for the dissolution of the United States. In our country, we don't need the government to protect us from ideas.

BOLDUAN: This is at the very beginning stages. Very interested to see where this goes.

Conor Fitzpatrick, thank you for your time.

FITZPATRICK: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Thank you.

BERMAN: And thank you so much for joining us this morning. This has been CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM" is up next.

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