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Israel's Security Cabinet Approves Plan to Take Over Gaza City; Russia Launches Drone Attacks on Ukraine as Trump Deadline Arrives; Trump Increases Federal Law Enforcement Presence in D.C.; Deadline Day for Texas Dems to Return to the State; Federal Judge Orders Temporary Pause at the Alligator Alcatraz. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 08, 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]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news this morning, new explosions in Gaza City just after Israel's Security Cabinet approves a plan to take over that city. Israel's planned military expansion now opening the door to possibly taking over all of Gaza, and the reaction now from around the world and the families of Israeli hostages.

It's deadline day for Russia. President Trump gave Vladimir Putin until today to agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine. Russia's response, launching more than 100 attack drones on Ukraine overnight.

And in Washington, Donald Trump is sending in federal forces beefing up that law enforcement presence on the streets of D.C. as the president threatens to take over D.C.'s police department.

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A major shift by Israel. After a 10-hour meeting the Security Cabinet there approved a full military takeover of Gaza City, an operation that senior members of the Israeli military vocally opposed.

Now, in the wake of that announcement, Germany just announced it will not approve any exports of military equipment that could be used by Israel in Gaza. The families of Israeli hostages released a statement calling the plan a, quote, "colossal catastrophe." They added, "The only way to bring the hostages home is through a comprehensive deal. No more futile war."

Let's get right to CNN's Matthew Chance for the very latest in Jerusalem.

Good morning, Matthew.

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, John. So much division in Israel about this decision by the Israeli Security Cabinet to double down militarily in the Gaza Strip and to try and, you know, kind of take complete control over Gaza City, where there's more than a million Palestinians living in, you know, real ruin -- real state of ruin and hardship because of the bombardment that's been underway there for many, many months, more than nearly two years, in fact.

Divisions in the Israeli cabinet, it took 10 hours to reach that agreement. That's an indication of just how much debate there was. But it's a divided country as well. I mean, there are -- there are protesters that have come out onto the streets, families of the hostages you mentioned. They believe that a military escalation at this point would prove to be a death sentence for their loved ones being held inside the Gaza Strip. There are 50 hostages, 20 of them still believed to be alive.

The country is generally exhausted as well, through the nearly two years of wars that Israel has been fighting, not just in Gaza, but in Lebanon, in Syria, against Iran as well. And, you know, many Israelis, the majority of them, according to opinion polls, want the country to return to some kind of normality. They want to get the government to cut a deal with Hamas, get the hostages home.

There's really only one segment of Israeli society that is in favor of a double down militarily in Gaza, and that's the extreme right-wing who form a very important part of Benjamin Netanyahu's fragile governing coalition. They said they want to, you know, destroy Hamas, conquer the whole of Gaza. They've even spoken openly about placing Jewish settlements inside the Gaza Strip in the future.

If they were to lose, if Netanyahu was to lose their support, his government would fall. And so his decision to go in and try and take the Gaza -- take Gaza City is being cast amongst many Israelis who are opposed to it as being a political decision. Not that something that puts the country's interests first, something that puts his political survival first. And so it's in that sort of very divisive, feverish atmosphere that this decision to extend the military campaign and to escalate it in the Gaza Strip now apparently has been taken by the government.

BERMAN: And we will see how long it takes before we start seeing the movements on the ground there.

Matthew Chance, thank you very much. Kate.

BOLDUAN: For the very same time, we now have seen that Russia has launched a new wave of drone attacks on Ukraine, just as a critical deadline set by President Trump has arrived. More than 100 Russian drones were used in the attacks across the country. At least 10 different locations were hit and four civilians were injured.

And it comes on this deadline day for Moscow. President Trump has said that the Russian leader, Vladimir Putin, must agree to a ceasefire with Ukraine by today or face severe new U.S. sanctions. But it is quite unclear whether President Trump will be following through on that threat after today.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in Kyiv watching all of this.

I mean, this is -- there have been many a milestone moment, many a critical day. This one is definitely that -- Nick. NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT:

Certainly. But just a reminder, we've been exactly in this place before back in May. Now, it may be today that we hear of more secondary sanctions from U.S. President Donald Trump.

[09:05:02]

Remember, he has already said he will be imposing about two and a half weeks from now sanctions against India for buying Russian oil.

Is that also going to be something he levels against China? Other sanctions are possible as well. He imposed the deadline himself, and as you say, we have very little sign that a peace deal is imminent. There have been some background signals suggesting possibilities that a ceasefire might be edging near the Polish president. Donald Tusk has said that a ceasefire is closer now than it is further away.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also hinted at that possibility, but it simply hasn't happened and we have now seen the narrative shift quite conclusively from today being a deadline day after which pain would be inflicted upon Russia's key backers financially, China and India, and maybe against Russia itself, to instead now seeing the talk being about a U.S.-Russia summit.

Not even the trilateral meeting that indeed was proposed back in May in Istanbul, that Trump said he would attend and that Putin, out of hand, rejected entirely. So it's a key moment, certainly. Suggestions in Russian state media that we might have an Arab nation be the host for this meeting. Talk could it happen early next week? So hard to read the signals there as to what actually will happen and what may be being floated.

Because you have to remember here, Kate, many see here in Ukraine as this being another moment for Russia to buy time, to try and hold off the more ferocious sanctions against it and its allies, to engender the possibility of better U.S.-Russian relations as something that Trump can perhaps see, something he clearly wants and has wanted for some time despite his growing public impatience with the Kremlin head, Vladimir Putin.

Ukrainians worried that they're seeing the front lines here moving certainly in Russia's favor. Russia's turning its incremental gains over months now into something that's more strategically relevant. Could they get more out of the front line progress in the next two to three weeks? Certainly. Is that something they're willing to buy time for? Well, we've seen that in the past months.

And so I think many here in Kyiv, particularly Ukraine's allies in Europe as well, wants to see today results in either concrete sanctions, a date and conditions set for a meeting between Trump and Putin that involves Ukraine and that Ukraine peace and ceasefire is the key central plank of, or we'll have I think another feeling like we had back in May that this Trump White House has not honored the threats against Russia and turned them into action, and instead are giving a huge amount of rope for the Kremlin to pursue its progress on the front lines and diplomacy on its own timetable -- Kate. BOLDUAN: Today we will -- we will know something by the end of the

day. We'll be there together with you to find that out.

Nick, thank you so much. John.

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, President Trump ordered a surge of federal law enforcement on the streets of Washington, D.C., overnight to fight crime. And we did see evidence of their presence on the streets. This in spite of the fact that all kinds of data, more than just this, in fact, shows that crime in Washington is down year over year.

Let's get right to CNN's Brian Todd with the latest in Washington.

What are you seeing, Brian?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, my team and I have been moving around the streets of D.C. all morning. And what I can tell you is that the law enforcement presence this morning is not overwhelming. It is not out of the ordinary. And you wouldn't really expect it to be since it's only a little bit after 9:00 in the morning. And we've been out earlier in the morning all over town in the mall.

This is the area of Capital One Arena downtown, and there is a law enforcement presence here. A few cars here along this street in northwest D.C. This is the kind of area where you can expect a more visible law enforcement presence at night. You know, in the late night, early morning hours in the areas where there are bars and restaurants. The ATF posted some pictures on social media of their agents out last night in another area of town, not too far from here, where again, it's a popular area for bars and restaurants.

That's the time of night, you know, late at night, overnight, where you're going to probably see a more visible law enforcement presence if you see one at all. Now, again, sometimes they're very subtle about these things, but given the president's order and the message that the Trump team is trying to get across, I think you'll see probably more of a visible presence. That's going to be later at night, and it will be in areas like this.

This is a very popular area. A lot of bars and restaurants. You've got the arena here where the Capitals and wizards play and a lot of concerts are taking place here.

What I can also tell you that's new this morning we just got word from the National Guard that the National Guard is not part of this effort to show an increased law enforcement presence. There are other agencies involved. ATF, other federal agencies, also some more local police, U.S. Capitol Police. Of course, the Metropolitan Washington Police are involved.

[09:10:01]

So that's what you've got here. And of course, this stems from an attack on a former DOGE employee, Edward Coristine, 19 years old. He was assaulted during an attempted carjacking early Sunday morning at about 3:00 a.m. Sunday morning in an area about 20 square blocks from where I'm standing right now. That's the attack that kind of prompted President Trump to sound the alarm and say that violent crime is out of control in D.C.

But the numbers really don't bear that out, John. The violent crime is down 26 percent from a year ago at this time. Robberies are down. Almost every category of crime in the district is down from a year ago, including carjackings. Carjackings actually way down from two years ago when they, you know, they had hit their peak around 2022, 2023. They had hit a peak, but they've been way down since then.

So, you know, it is a political message that the president is trying to make. What's also interesting about this entire situation is that we've been after the D.C. City Council, Mayor Muriel Bowser, and the D.C. Police, all week long to comment on all of this stuff. Silence. It's crickets. The mayor is not commenting. The D.C. Police are not commenting, although the D.C. Police are part of this stepped up law enforcement presence.

And I've combed through every member of the city council to try to get some comment on all of this. They're all staying silent. They seem to really want to stay away from this whole thing and just kind of ride it out, John. But again, you will be seeing that presence in D.C. and again, it will probably be in the late night overnight hours. And look for that tonight. You know, obviously Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday night. That's going to be when you see a lot of people out on the streets in D.C.

BERMAN: Brian Todd, thanks for being there for us this morning. Thank you very much.

The Department of Justice has until noon today to respond to Ghislaine Maxwell's attorneys, who are fighting against the DOJ's efforts to unseal Jeffrey Epstein's grand jury records.

A federal judge issued a blow to Florida's "Alligator Alcatraz," placing a two-week halt on its construction. And this morning Texas Democrats who fled the state face a deadline to return or risk losing their seats.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:16:46]

BERMAN: All right, new this morning, Texas Senator John Cornyn says the FBI has agreed to help locate Texas Democrats who fled the state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): I wrote a letter to Director Patel of the FBI, and I asked him to look into the matter and he responded to me directly, saying that he had assigned agents in both the San Antonio and Austin office to meet my request.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BERMAN: Let me get more specific, though, about what Cornyn says the FBI promised here. He said, "I'm proud to announce that Director Patel has approved my request for the FBI to assist state and local law enforcement in locating the runaway Texas House Democrats."

With us now former Manhattan prosecutor Jeremy Saland.

And Counsel, the reason I wanted to point that out is because what Cornyn is saying now, he put in the request, he wanted the FBI to bring them home to Texas. What he is now saying is, yes, the FBI has told me they're going to help locate them. Why do you think there is that distinction between locate and grab them and bring them home?

JEREMY SALAND, FORMER MANHATTAN PROSECUTOR: John, I'm going to give you an answer you already know. It's cinema. I mean, he might as well ask, you know, Walker, Texas Ranger, and get Chuck Norris to do their job. It's just finding where they are. Some of whom aren't really hiding, for lack of a better term. But there's no rule or law that will allow the picking up of these guys and an arrest warrant like what we call a governor's warrant, because there's probable cause, and there's been an indictment in some sort of crime that's been perpetrated, and they fled the state for that reason.

Very different here. This is really sort of just an image that he's doing strong things for the people of Texas, when in fact there's really no legal ground for the FBI to do much of anything at this point if ever.

BERMAN: Yes, basically, basically, they're not hard to locate. They're on TV every day.

SALAND: Yes. Yes.

BERMAN: I can help locate them. Locating them is not the issue. But what you're saying is there's no legal authority --

SALAND: You've been deputized, John.

BERMAN: There's no legal authority for the FBI to arrest them and move them to Texas.

SALAND: That's correct. Again, you can have a civil warrant. Kind of like you can have civil contempt. That's not criminal contempt. So you can have a civil war in the state legislature in Texas or wherever they're going to do it and say, you need to come home and there can be consequences at some point for failing to do so. But to get probable cause for a judge to sign off on a warrant or secure an indictment for some nonexistent crime or something else, that's very, very different.

And if that were to happen, which it won't, then the governor of state of Texas would say to the governor of Illinois, it's really just sort of a process. There's a governor's warrant. We want you to effectuate our warrants here in Texas and get them and extradite them back. Not going to happen.

BERMAN: Again, even that thing we have on the screen there, the lower third, is a little bit misleading. You know, Cornyn can say the FBI is going to hold them accountable. But really, all that means is locating them, which anyone with a cable --

SALAND: They're posturing.

BERMAN: Do day in and day out. I want to ask you a little bit about the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Congress, Republican-led Congress issued a bunch of subpoenas for people to come testify before the House Oversight Committee. One person who did not receive a subpoena was Alex Acosta, who, of course, was the federal prosecutor who initially, early on, the first round of Epstein thing caught what a lot of people consider to be a sweetheart deal that allowed Epstein to not face federal charges, plead guilty to state charges.

[09:20:10]

He was not subpoenaed in this round. The family of Virginia Giuffre just spoke to CNN last night. They're not at all happy about this. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SKY ROBERTS, BROTHER OF VIRGINIA GIUFFRE: My sister was incredibly hurt by the sweetheart deal that was made to Epstein because none of these monsters deserve any type of, you know, leniency. It continues to put more question marks on the entire case because if you're subpoenaing people and, you know, about something that they may have some sort of on, I mean, you'd think that they would subpoena him. Simply because he was the one that made the sweetheart deal with Epstein. So I do, I do call on them. We do call on them to call Alex Acosta.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Is there any legal reason why you wouldn't subpoena him? Would a real investigation include him?

SALAND: John, this is really anything but a pursuit of honesty. The truth, evidence and facts. Weve said this many times. Just go back and go to the, for lack of a better term, that file and release it all. You want to subpoena people? He should be on that list. There's no reason really why he shouldn't be. Anyone who's really has in-depth knowledge and firsthand knowledge should be a part of this.

This is politics, politics, politics, same cinema. We just discussed before about the legislature going to Illinois and efforts to bring them back. This is just cinema made for TV, so it can seem like there's a pursuit of justice. There's no reason, no.

BERMAN: Jeremy Saland, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much, Kate.

BOLDUAN: The federal judge has now ordered a temporary pause on any new construction at the controversial immigration detention center in the Florida Everglades. The halt to work was in response to a lawsuit brought by environmental groups arguing the project threatens environmentally sensitive wetlands there.

CNN's Rafael Romo is following this one.

And, Rafael, what we're talking about is what has been dubbed the "Alligator Alcatraz." What's the latest here?

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, the judge's ruling means construction at the migrant detention center in the Florida Everglades, dubbed "Alligator Alcatraz," must stop for two weeks. That's essentially what it means right now. This period is meant to give Miami U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams time to consider whether the tent facility violates federal environmental laws.

The state of Florida started building the facility meant to hold up to 3,000 migrants in late June at a single runway airport located in the middle of the everglades. This week's ruling stems from a lawsuit filed on June 27th, Kate, by the environmental groups known as Friends of the Everglades and the Center for Biological Diversity. The Miccosukee Tribe later joined the lawsuit.

The judge's order doesn't impose any restrictions on immigration authorities to detain and process hundreds of undocumented immigrants who are already being held at the detention center. And even though the order is temporary, one of the plaintiffs says it's a step in the right direction.

This is how Eve Samples, executive director of the Friends of the Everglades, reacted after Judge Williams issued her ruling.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EVEN SAMPLES, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, FRIENDS OF THE EVERGLADES: Our case as a reminder is all about pausing so that the government can comply with the National Environmental Policy Act. We've had to do this work that the government should have done and we are pleased and encouraged that the court saw fit to pause additional construction activity and we still do expect the government to comply with the law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Well, federal agencies have authority over immigration. The Florida Division of Emergency Management built it and is managing the facility. A spokesman for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said the following, quote, "Alligator Alcatraz will remain operational, continuing to serve as a force multiplier to enhance deportation efforts."

And, Kate, this is one of two lawsuits against "Alligator Alcatraz." Last month, the ACLU sued the Trump administration and others claiming lack of access to legal counsel and violations of due process for people detained at the tent facility. In a court filing, the state of Florida said detainees have been allowed to meet with their lawyers for three weeks at the detention center -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Rafael Romo, thank you so much. Still ahead for us, it is deadline day in Texas. The state's attorney

general threatening Democratic lawmakers who fled the state if they don't return, they're going to lose their seats. And now the governor is leveling his own threat, saying if they don't come back, he'll move to carve out even more congressional seats.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:29:08]

BOLDUAN: Recent polls have shown that Democrats are facing an uphill battle ahead of the midterms, but some new numbers are offering maybe something of a different picture. And that is what Harry Enten is back and digging into.

Potentially signs of a turnaround, perhaps, Harry. What are you seeing on the generic ballot?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: OK, so you know, we're talking about warning signs for the Republican Party. And I will just say, uh- oh for them. That is the phrase of the day. Uh-oh. Democrats leading the generic congressional ballot and you can see their lead is expanding. It's becoming bigger.

Look at this, in spring CNBC it was two. Now it's five. How about Ipsos? It was one for the Democrats. Now it's four. How about the "Wall Street Journal"? It was one. And now it is three. So now the average lead here is four which is up from just about a point. That's about a three point move on average in the Democrats' direction.

And of course, Kate Bolduan, this is coming amidst the fights over redistricting, and I think there are going to be a lot of people wondering, wait a minute, are Republicans wanting to change the lines because they are losing, which they absolutely are on the generic congressional ballot. At this point, Democrats are winning. Republicans are losing, and maybe they're trying to change the lines in order to give themselves a little bit more wiggle room.