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Soon, Trump Holds News Conference as He Threatens Fed Takeover of D.C.; Trump Admin Rushing to Finalize Details of Friday Meeting With Putin; Historic Rainfall in Milwaukee Leads to Flooding, Water Rescues. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 11, 2025 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, President Trump's law enforcement crackdown in Washington, D.C., is ramping up even more, now reportedly considering sending in the National Guard, and the mayor of D.C. is finally speaking out about all of this.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New, this morning, we will not let Russia deceive America. That's the call from Ukrainian Leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of the high stakes and now controversial summit between President Trump and Vladimir Putin.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: And flash flooding from record rainfall swamp streets in Milwaukee. And this morning, more than 3 million people across the Midwest are under flood alerts. Where the threat remains.

This morning, Sara's out. I'm Jessica Dean with Kate Bolduan and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

BOLDUAN: And we are standing by this morning for President Trump to speak at the White House. He's expected to address crime in the nation's capital once again as he is threatening a federal takeover of the district's local government. Over the weekend, the administration launched I guess you call it a crackdown in D.C., involving up to 450 federal officers. And now a source is telling CNN that the plans are going even further.

And now the plans called for as many as 130 FBI agents to patrol the streets with D.C. Police, which, to say the least, would be highly unusual. The president's floated the possibility of deploying the National Guard even there as well.

All of this, despite that the numbers don't necessarily match the rhetoric that the stats and the data show that violent crime has dropped in D.C. compared to this time last year.

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House. His fixation on this is only getting more fixated, not less, despite what the numbers say. What are you expecting to hear from the president today?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I put it this way, Kate. We've definitely seen, of course, the president repeatedly try to paint himself as a law and order man, a law and order president. We've also seen him repeatedly this term push the boundaries of his executive authority. And we're really going to see both of those things kind of escalate today when he addresses reporters at 10:00 A.M. in the White House briefing room.

Now, I'm expecting to hear a lot of the same things we've seen the president post over the weekend. Just to give you one of them from yesterday, he said, quote, the homeless have to move out immediately. We will give you places to stay, but far from the capital. He went on to say, the criminals, you don't have to move out. We're going to put you in jail where you belong.

Now, I think it's important to note, Kate, as you mentioned, we have seen crime in D.C. actually drop in recent years. Not just from this time last year, but also when you look back to 2023 from those numbers as well. And we are seeing the president take things to a level you haven't really seen in this city.

So, as you mentioned, this event comes after we saw the president launch a surge of these federal law enforcement agencies. We were told by a White House official that 450 officers were expected to participate. And then we also have, from a source familiar that we could see as many as 130 FBI agents patrolling alongside patrolling the city alongside a D.C. Police. And it's, again, notable, it's not typical for FBI agents to be doing this type of work. You know, looking at license plate to see which vehicles may have been stolen, other things like that.

Now, all of this, as we've also heard Trump's deputy chief of staff for policy, Stephen Miller, I mean, he's compared this city to a war zone. He said it's, quote, more violent than Baghdad. It's more violent than part of Ethiopia.

And what's been really striking to see over this past several days now, ever since the president five days ago had threatened the surge of federal law enforcement, we've notably not heard a lot from local officials, that included the D.C. mayor, Muriel Bowser. However, we did hear her break her silence yesterday when she went on one of the Sunday shows. Listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D-WASHINGTON, D.C.): Any comparison to a war torn country is hyperbolic and false. There are very specific things in our law that would allow the president to have more control over our police department. None of those conditions exist in our city right now. As I mentioned, we are not experiencing a spike in crime.

[07:05:01]

In fact, we're watching our crime numbers go down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: As you heard her say there, we're watching our crime numbers go down. But, again, this is the first time we've heard Bowser address this since all of this began. And it's been, again, very notable, we haven't heard from many local law enforcement officials speaking up about this.

Something notable as well from me was that Bowser did not direct the president or attack the president directly, all to say, waiting to see what the president will actually say when we see him at 10:00 A.M. while, of course, bringing the news there. Kate?

BOLDUAN: All right. Alayna Treene at the White House for us, thank you so much, Alayna. John?

BERMAN: All right. New this morning, as of now, CNN has learned that no venue has been selected in Alaska to host the high-stakes summit between President Trump and Vladimir Putin on Friday. The biggest question is, will Ukrainian Leader Volodymyr Zelenskyy be invited to attend discussions about the future of his own country?

Overnight, Zelenskyy said, quote, we understand Russia's intention to try to deceive America. We will not allow this.

Let's get right to CNN Chief International Security Correspondent Nick Paton Walsh, who's in Kramatorsk hearing from Ukrainians themselves. Nick, good morning.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Look, while we're in Kramatorsk world, this is the de facto capital, really, of the Ukrainian held parts of Donetsk. And behind me is the train that's just come from the capital, Kyiv, bringing hundreds in, and then now hundreds will leave, a lot of these soldiers or civilians doing their normal daily commute.

Why are we here? Well, it's essentially one of the parts of Ukraine that is under discussion. It seems through the meeting of U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to some reports, Witkoff was told that potentially they could give up parts, or Ukraine could give up parts of the Donetsk region in exchange for a ceasefire. Well, that would mean giving up this town and many others around it that are still held by Ukraine and are bustling.

It's important just to show people around here, we're not talking about battlefields or ruined parts of territory. This is a bustling city of tens of thousands of people. And so in the highly unlikely event that there were to be some kind of deal that just simply gifted parts of the Donetsk region to the Russians in exchange for a ceasefire, parts of Ukraine, they haven't managed to take militarily yet themselves.

Then you're going to see scenes like this to the tens of thousands as an entire city potentially tries to leave. Also, pretty much everyone we've spoken to here utterly rejects the idea of this area being handed over, echoing what the Ukrainian government has said.

But still, the next four or five days ahead are going to be of unique stress for people living here, not only because of the air raid sirens we've just heard, because of the impacts we've been hearing in the town over the last minutes or so, but because the fate of where they live, their home is going to be decided by two men in Alaska on the other side of the Earth, potentially without their president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, even being there.

Yes, it's still unclear where it will happen. It's certainly Friday, which will be probably the early hours of Saturday morning here there's acute European pressure to firstly really understand what's on the table so far, and to get President Zelenskyy into that meeting in some way or another. They ideally want it to be a trilateral meeting in Ukraine and the Europeans, but that's something Putin rejected back in May in Istanbul offered by Zelenskyy, supported by -- acute concerns amongst local people here that their future, their options are potentially going to be bargained away, even as it seems that the exact part of what the Kremlin wants is a bit more chaotic to understand.

It doesn't seem that the Vladimir Putin shifted much from his most maximalist demands of wanting all of Ukraine. Might he except to freeze the frontlines? That's yet unclear. Europe, though, and Ukraine consistent like they have been for months that they want to see an unconditional ceasefire first before there's negotiations. And then in a recent statement, we saw over the weekend the starting point for talks to be the current line of contact, where the frontlines are right now.

But those are changing. The Russians are pushing forwards in some areas to quite alarming speed to get more strategic gains. Again, the air raid siren are going off around us here. Any moment these doors will open and let people back on. There's often a quite a fast turnaround on these railway tracks because of the risk of air assaults here, because of the risk of strikes, because this area has been hit before in the past.

But, ultimately, this one of the areas of Ukraine, which is suddenly found after reports emerged after the Witkoff meeting in Moscow, that its fate had somehow become part of a bargaining process that didn't actually include Ukraine.

But I can't stress enough here.

[07:10:00]

We just turn the camera around here. This is a thriving, bustling town, city, and it's simply not remotely imagining Russia taking control of it in its future.

Back to you.

BERMAN: A bustling Ukrainian town. Nick Paton Walsh in Kramatorsk, which runs the risk of being traded away without the consent of the people there, Nick Paton Walsh, thank you so much for that report. We'll check in with you in a little bit, extraordinary to see that. Jessica?

DEAN: Back here at home, millions under flood threat as record- breaking rains sparked major flashfloods all across the Midwest. Milwaukee issuing a state of emergency, we'll tell you where the threat is headed to today.

Also breaking overnight, chip giants NVidia and Advanced Micro Devices agree to pay the U.S. government 15 percent of their China sales. That's just one day ahead of a deadline for a tariff deal between the U.S. and China.

And dangerous moments caught on cameras, high surf and heavy waves push a passenger ferry around in Hawaii.

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[07:15:00]

BOLDUAN: This morning, 3.5 million people across the Midwest are facing flood alerts. People in Milwaukee are waking up to a flood warning after record rainfall this weekend. We're going to show you just some of the video. I mean, just take a look at this, flooded Streets obviously very clearly stranding many cars in this path.

Milwaukee saw a month-and-a-half worth of rain in just hours. So, Wisconsin State Fair was forced to close down a day early because of it all. Milwaukee's airport, also not spared, runways flooded there.

Let's go over to Derek Van Dam. He's tracking all of this for us. Where's the threat now, Derek?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Okay. So, the rain is still a threat today across Milwaukee. In fact, that flood warning goes through about 10:00 A.M. But get this, Kate, so much rain fell in Milwaukee that -- we're talking about the potential for the most amount of rain that the state has ever received in a 24-hour period. There was a rain gauge that recorded 14.5 inches just to the northwest of Milwaukee. And if that's confirmed by the National Weather Service, it would have shattered a record that has stood since 1946.

Of course, when you get that amount of rain and that short of a period of time, this is the result. Here's a look at Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. We're west of Milwaukee, but still in Milwaukee County. I mean, look at the construction barrels. There's looked like a rubber ducky floating in this. That was a river, or, rather, that was a road that turned into a river and unfortunately flooding the homes and the businesses in the general vicinity, so an immense amount of rain, a tremendous amount of precipitation in such a short period of time causing these issues.

Here's the radar, estimated rainfall, and you can see the heaviest of rain was really just to the north of Milwaukee. So, there's Lake Michigan. Here's Madison, the whole state saw a lot of rain, but it was really centered on Milwaukee County. That's why the grounds are still saturated, and we still have these flood warnings that are in effect through 10:00 A.M. this morning. It takes a while for that water to actually recede. And on top of that, there's the chance for additional showers today. Nothing like what we're experiencing in the immediate term here across Kansas. Wichita has heavy rain. We're talking about hundreds of lightning strikes at the moment across the southeastern sections of Kansas, all part of a larger storm system.

And I want to show you the evolution of this flood threat here across Kansas. It's going to dissipate. So, that's good news, but, unfortunately, it's going to bring some of that moisture back into the upper Great Lakes, potentially bringing more rainfall to places like Milwaukee, Madison, and Chicago.

Here's today's flood threat. You can see greatest across Oklahoma, Southeastern Kansas, and that slight risk extends across the Great Lakes with an additional one to three inches of rain depending on where the heaviest rain sets up. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Yes. So, the threat is very present and not over, much to watch this morning.

Derek, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Jessica?

VAN DAM: You got it.

DEAN: Also this morning, hundreds of staffers with the CDC are trying to make sense of the trauma they endured when a gunman opened fire on the agency's buildings. That happened Friday, just before 5:00 P.M. The suspect began shooting at a CVS drugstore directly across from the main entrance to the CDC. And more than 40 bullets were fired on at least four CDC buildings. A police officer who pulled up to the scene was killed by that gunman. And after a tense lockdown, the shooter was struck by gunfire and found dead on the second floor of that drugstore.

Now, authorities have not yet announced a motive, but sources said they believe the suspect may have targeted the CDC over health concerns that he blamed on the COVID-19 vaccine. Agency leadership held a Zoom call with about 800 employees over the weekend, where staffers tearfully said they felt, in their words, like sitting ducks given the growing misinformation being circulated surrounded in the CDC and more specifically around vaccines.

Photos viewed by CNN taken from inside one CDC building show bullet holes and windows and shattered glass on the floor. In the CDC offices, employees say the situation could have been even worse, and it's a miracle no one else was killed. John?

BERMAN: All right. Breaking overnight, new details on an Israeli strike that killed several journalists.

And a controversial piece of the action, reports of an unprecedented deal to sell possibly sensitive technology to China so long as the U.S. government gets a cut.

[07:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BERMAN: All right, we've got some history on the diamond. Let's get right to CNN's Coy Wire. Good morning to you, sir.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Top of the morning to you, sir. Jen Pawol became the first woman to umpire in a regular season MLB game this weekend. She worked first base of the first game of a Marlins- Braves double-hitter Saturday, then third base in the second game.

And yesterday there was the moment history, her story in the making, again, Pawol becoming the first woman to be behind home plate calling balls and strikes. You are out of there. Fans we're seeing holding signs saying things like, welcome to the show, Jen. Pawol says she'll be donating the caps she wore to the Hall of Fame.

The former division one softball player at Hofstra spent about a decade grinding it out in the majors to finally get this opportunity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLAYTON MCCULLOUGH, MIAMI MARLINS MANAGER: Jen did a really nice job. I think she seemed very composed back there. She handled and managed the game very well and a big day for her, big day for Major League Baseball, to -- you know, congratulated her again on that because it's quite the accomplishment and wish her the best moving forward. As you know, she continues to, I'm sure hope, one day, be, you know, a full- time, you know, permanent big league umpire. So, big day for a lot of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: All right. Something special brewing in Milwaukee, not just the PBR. Mets and Brewers going in different directions. Mets lost six straight coming in, Brewers having won eight straight.

[07:25:02]

Mets were up 5-0 in the fourth with the Brewer's battle back, and in the ninth tied at six. The rookie, Isaac Collins, off to Edwin Diaz. Collins says, I could feel it coming in the air tonight. A walk-off solo home run for the win, 7-6 Milwaukee, Collins' first career walk- off sends the Mets pack in earning his Brew crew their ninth straight win.

Finally, football is back, thank you very much, and Chargers Defensive Back Eric Rogers says, thank you very much two times to the Saints, two interceptions, including this one for a touchdown for the rookie from Rutgers. Jim Harbaugh's second string defense looking dominant. Looks like the Saints' quarterback uncertainty is warranted. Tyler Shough throwing that interception.

The Chargers win 27-13. Mr. Rogers was seen on crutches afterwards in the locker room with his team, but Coach Harbaugh gave him the game ball. Imagine that, John, being a rookie, getting two picks. That's a way to make the team.

BERMAN: You know, Coy, I am embarrassed how much preseason football I watched this weekend. You've been there. Like what's it like for these guys trying to make the team in these games?

WIRE: You don't sleep very much even though you're completely exhausted mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally. This is your dream come true. You've worked your entire life for this. You're putting on an NFL uniform for the first time in a real life situation. It's very surreal. And then you have to go out there and focus and do your job, John. And that's for the coaches too, like your New England Patriots' new head coach who got in a scuffle representing his boys. He had a bloody face and everything.

BERMAN: Mike Vrabel had this blood on his face from practice because he's jumping into the pile to pull people apart. You got to love it.

All right, Coy Wire, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: I'm just glad football's back.

BERMAN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: I'm just going to leave it that football is back.

Coming out still for us, Texas lawmakers are set to reconvene today to try and move their redistricting plans forward, that is Republicans. The governor is now saying and warning that the standoff with Democrats who left the state to stop a vote from taking place, that standoff, he says, could last years.

And Senator Bernie Sanders with a message to Democrats.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): I think, in many ways, the Democratic Party has turned its back on what was its space.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[07:30:00]