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Trump Increases Federal Law Enforcement Presence In D.C.; Wildfire Tears Through Mountains North of L.A.; Gifford Fire Scorches More Than 99,000 Acres, Only 15 Percent Contained; First Female Umpire To Work MLB Regular Season Games; Athlete Unlimited Softball League Began This Year, Four Teams Played First Season; Sex Toys Thrown Onto WBA Court In Multiple Different Games; Trump Seeks $1 Billion Settlement From UCLA; Texas Republicans Try To Pass New Redistricting Map. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired August 08, 2025 - 13:30   ET

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

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[13:30:44]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Happening right now, we're beginning to see the first signs of a surge of federal law enforcement here in Washington, D.C. after President Trump ordered the increased presence overnight to fight crime. Early this morning, the ATF's Washington Field Division posted photos on social media of agents on the streets of the nation's capitol.

A White House official tells CNN the operation will last for at least seven days, but could be extended. The president also says that he is considering a federal takeover of the D.C. Police Department and that he may deploy the National Guard. Trump has complained about D.C.'s "out of control crime." The numbers, however, don't support the president's claims. According to the D.C. Police Department, violent crime, including robberies, homicide, aggravated assault, and sexual abuse are all down significantly from last year.

I want to discuss this with Robert White Jr. He serves as an at-large member of the Council of the District of Columbia. Mr. White, great to see you.

ROBERT WHITE JR., AT-LARGE MEMBER, THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA: Good to see you.

WHITFIELD: So the White House says that these added reinforcements will be in "high-traffic tourist areas." Is that what you've been seeing this morning as you traverse the city of Washington?

WHITE JR.: We have a lot of tourists in D.C. and so we always have a, a safety concern for them. But they're across the city and federal agencies already have jurisdiction over the federal properties. So we welcome partnership. It's something we've had for decades under Democratic and Republican administrations. And if the Trump Administration wants to partner with us on public safety, we welcome it. But overstepping and stomping on our local democracy is a different thing. That won't make us safer. WHITFIELD: This doesn't sound like a partnership, what the president is proposing. So what are your constituents saying about the idea of having federal law enforcement, whether it be in high-traffic tourism areas or in other parts of the city?

WHITE JR.: Well, look, everybody in D.C., whether they live here or they're a tourists or an elected official, wants crime to not exist. We have made great strides. As you said earlier, crime is down in the district significantly, even violent crime down 26 percent. So if we're moving in the right direction, then partner with us to help the things that are working. Don't stomp on top of our police department that knows what they're doing, and call it public safety. It seems like a political ruse for other measures, but we have to be grounded in truth. The truth is crime is going down in D.C.

WHITFIELD: OK, as you said, 26 percent. It's down violent crime, according to Metropolitan Police, and it's hitting a 30-year low since last year. But youth crime remains a pretty big concern. The incident that sparked Trump's recent decision seemed to involve the 10 juveniles who are connected to an attempted a carjacking involving a former DOGE employee. I mean, what do you think the answer is to address the concerns that residents, or even, visitors might have about safety and overall upkeep of the city?

WHITE JR.: Again, we're all concerned about safety and upkeep. There's been an increase in the number of juveniles arrested. This is something that we take very seriously. The notion that any young person who commits a crime at any level has to be thrown in jail and the key thrown away, goes against public safety. And so, when young people commit serious and violent crimes, we have to hold them accountable. That's not a partisan issue. But when young people are doing what young people do, making mistakes, we want to get as many of them in the right direction as possible.

WHITFIELD: So one of your colleagues, Council Member Christina Henderson, attributed crime in the city to both the Trump and Biden administrations not nominating enough judges to handle the local caseload. There has been, my team observed one vacancy, that has been open since 2013. Is that an issue here? Is that a contributing factor?

WHITE JR.: The vacancies in our courts and our judges are federally appointed is a huge issue. It's an issue in crime. It's an issue with evictions. It's created a massive backlog in public safety and housing issues. That's where partnership comes in. So instead of telling people crime is up when it is factually not, work with our local officials to say, what do you need? What we need is more partnership to fill those vacancies, more attention to our federal parks where the federal government already has jurisdiction.

[13:35:00]

Those are the things that give us progress, not these quick hits and these political stunts. Those move us further away.

WHITFIELD: Is this power struggle between the city and the White House sustainable? WHITE JR.: I would call it a power struggle. I would say --

WHITFIELD: What would you call it?

WHITE JR.: Would say -- I would call it a political maneuver. And it's one that's not good for the city or for the nation. I think --

WHITFIELD: Because the president has said on a number of occasions that he would either want to take over the city or most recently, take over the police department, examples like that?

WHITE JR.: Exactly. And federal government wants to control D.C. and they realize managing a big city is a headache and they need their time and attention elsewhere. Since we're pushing crime down successfully in D.C., we need the feds to focus on things like the devastation in Gaza, like what's happening in Russia, in Ukraine. Those are things that we can't do. So if they focus there and we focus on public safety here in D.C., I think we have a working democracy.

WHITFIELD: All right. At-large D.C. Council Member Robert White, thank you so much.

WHITE JR.: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Appreciate it. All right, next, to California where a wildfire has absolutely exploded in size and is now burning the equivalent of a football field every two seconds. We're on the ground in Los Angeles County, right after this.

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[13:40:40]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Right now, a wildfire is spreading very quickly in the mountains north of Los Angeles. Thousands of people under evacuation orders after the canyon fire grew to about 5,000 acres in just a matter of hours. Right now, it's burning the equivalent of a football field every two seconds. CNN's Nick Watt is in Los Angeles County tracking this for us. Right now, the fire is 0 percent contained. That is a very swift moving blaze, Nick.

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, we have just gotten word that they are now saying this fire is 25 percent contained. That is a massive piece of good news and frankly, testament to the work that was done by hundreds of firefighters on the ground and from the air overnight. So as you say, this fire lit lunchtime yesterday, exploded overnight, chewing up a football field every couple of seconds, growing to 5,000 acres, threatening thousands of structures, hundreds of people, more than hundreds of people being told to evacuate, many thousands more on standby.

Now, the firefighters, their priority (inaudible) property. And so, what they do overnight, it's not all the kind of sexy pictures of water, hose pipes and flames. A lot of the work these men and women do is grunt work, digging, digging fire brakes with their hands, with tools in these inhospitable hills. And the fire chiefs this morning told us that today would show whether their efforts overnight had paid off. And it appears by this 25 percent containment that their work has paid off, that they are getting a handle on this fire before it moves out of the mountains and really into any densely populated areas.

So that is great news, but we are going to have another extremely hot day of low humidity and there's a little bit of wind gusts. We're going to get about 20 miles an hour. All three of those factors play in to fire behavior. We are in fire season, so even if they get a hold of this one, there could be another one popping up. Brianna?

KEILAR: And Nick, this isn't the only fire we should mention that's burning in California right now.

WATT: No, I mean there are many. This is fire season. We saw those fires back in January, they were kind of atypical. That was out of season. This time of year, we expect this. We've had a long dry summer. We've got high temperatures as we always do late in the summer, as you know, August, September, maybe even into October. Now, that fire up near Santa Barbara has been burning for about a week now, 3,000 personnel on that one. It is nowhere near contained, 150 square miles, but so far, luckily, it's up in the hills outside -- again, outside of populated areas.

So, really the play across all of Southern California and indeed northern California right now, is to try to keep these wildfires, these brush fires, to keep them out of populated areas. And they will be busy doing this for the months to come as far as popup here, there, and frankly everywhere. Brianna?

KEILAR: All right. And we are wishing them luck, and safety as they do that. Nick Watt, thank you so much. When the Atlanta Braves host the Miami Marlins tomorrow, history will be made as a woman takes the field, the barrier-breaking debut right after this.

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[13:48:44]

KEILAR: An historic Major League Baseball debut, Jen Pawol will become the first woman to umpire a regular season Major League Baseball game when she works the Braves and Marlins series this weekend in Atlanta. Pawol has been a professional umpire for a decade and has worked over 1,200 minor league games, but outside of some spring training games, she hadn't been called up to the big leagues until now.

WHITFIELD: A Hofstra softball alum, Pawol says she was overwhelmed with emotion when she got the call, but feels like a fully charged battery, her words, and ready to go. Major League Baseball Commissioner, Rob Manfred, calls it a historic accomplishment and said, "She has earned this opportunity and we are proud of the strong example that she has set, particularly for all the women and young girls who aspire to roles on the field."

All right, joining us right now is a barrier-breaker in her own right, Kim Ng, who was the first female General Manager of a Major League Baseball team, the Miami Marlins, and is currently Commissioner of the Athletes Unlimited Pro Softball League. Great to see you again, Kim.

KIM NG, FORMER GENERAL MANAGER, MIAMI MARLINS: Hi, how are you? Thank you very much for having me.

WHITFIELD: Great. So, how big of a moment is this in your view for women and for Major League Baseball?

[13:50:00]

And how exciting is it that we would learn that her first game will be a Miami Marlins game?

NG: Yeah, first, huge congratulations to Jen. Such a long road, such hard work that she's put into this. And from what I understand under -- she deserves every single moment that she's going to encounter here. In terms of for women in baseball, huge great step. We've seen scouts, coaches, front-office executives, medical professionals, women coming through the pipeline. But for us to take this next step in the umpiring field is just huge for everyone. So huge congratulations.

KEILAR: Yeah. And there's so much pressure, when you were the first woman doing something, you know that you broke the glass ceiling as the first female general manager in MLB history. Do you have any advice, sort of about maybe that pressure you felt or how you dealt with it, for Pawol as she's breaking glass ceiling of her own here?

NG: Yeah, I've said this at my press conference, it was a lot of pressure to get there, but it's just as much, if not more pressure to stay and to really make your mark and understand -- make people understand that you can do this job. So, my advice to Jen is to just work hard as she has and to be singularly focused on doing her job well. And she'll encounter some bumps and bruises, and that happens to all of us. But, when you've worked this hard, nothing can stop you. So, I'm so happy for her and I'm sure she's going to do great.

WHITFIELD: Something else that's kind of strange, it'll be for Pawol and for everybody else who's watching her enjoying the game is that, her colleagues may also include some robots. The MLB tested out the Automated Ball-Strike Challenge System at this year's All-Star Game. What do you think about this tech?

NG: I think it's very interesting. For years, I think players have been interested in this type of technology. I think it's to the point now where Major League Baseball has done a lot of testing. And so, I think we're going to see how it works. But, I think a lot of people in the game have been -- have been -- have been interested in this coming about.

KEILAR: You're now the Commissioner of the Athletes Unlimited Softball League, as we mentioned, and there's no doubt that women's sports -- women in sport, they're really having this moment. We're seeing the rise of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers in the WNBA. I think certainly other sports are looking at that, hoping that that happens in their sport as well. Can you talk a little bit about the moment we're in and how the AUSL fits in as it celebrates its inaugural season? NG: Yeah, I mean, just such tremendous things happening in women's pro sports for the last several years. And that in and of itself has been such a long road, but we're finally starting to see that all the hard work coming to fruition. For the AUSL, we just had our first inaugural regular season, tremendous results. We had 20 sell-outs. We had 230 million social impressions and almost gained -- gained almost half a million new social followers. So really had some impressive numbers there.

We are happy to be a part of this growing landscape, and I think, finally getting the acknowledgement and the recognition that these women athletes deserve, just incredible, incredible athletes. So really happy about it.

WHITFIELD: Agreed. And I wonder, Kim, I got to ask you, as you talk about the growing landscape, we're talking about the WNBA, women's softball, but there is a distraction out there right now, and I got to ask you about it. And we're talking about on the WNBA courts, you've got some knuckleheads who are throwing sex toys on the court. They're calling it now a prank, but we know it's a distraction and we also know it's very demeaning. So, where are you on this? What do you think is going on here? And what do you think is behind it really?

NG: I think you used --

(LAUGH)

NG: You used a great word, those are knuckleheads, you know?

WHITFIELD: Yeah.

NG: And I think that, in terms of the athletes and coaching staffs and all the personnel, we've endured a lot of poor behavior in the past. And this is just chalk it up. This is just another example, but these women are such professionals, I know that they're going to ignore it and not let it interrupt their play. So, again, I don't know that this is anything different. It's probably just in a different form and we've all encountered it, but we've just got to keep marching on.

KEILAR: Yeah.

WHITFIELD: That's right. Marching on. Marching on.

KEILAR: They deserve to be treated like professionals and being the professionals they are is what's going to keep them marching on.

[13:55:00]

Kim Ng, thank you so much for being with us. Really, really appreciate the discussion today.

NG: Thank you.

KEILAR: This just in, one of the universities targeted by the Trump Administration has just learned what the president wants, the $1 billion settlement that he is asking for ahead. And just minutes from now, Texas House lawmakers will see if they have a quorum, whether Republicans have the votes to pass a controversial map that would draw new congressional districts and give Republicans more of an advantage in the House of Representatives. That's next. Stay with us.

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