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U.S. Officials Rush to Finalize Details of Trump-Putin Summit Friday; Millions Face Flooding Threat as Rain Pummels Central Plains; Trump Administration is Considering Softening Laws on Marijuana. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired August 11, 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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DANNY FREEMAN, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Thank you so much for that. We'll check in with you as the afternoon goes on. Appreciate it. And coming up next, President Trump says a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine will include a land swap, which appears to be news to Ukraine's leader. We have brand new reporting about the upcoming summit between President Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin. Stay with us.
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FREEMAN: We are four days out from President Trump's historic meeting with the Vladimir Putin. And he's setting expectations. Take a listen.
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DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: There'll be some land swapping going on. I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody to the good -- for the good of Ukraine. Good stuff; not bad stuff. Also some bad stuff for both. So it's good and there's bad, but it's very complex because you have lines that are very uneven. And there'll be some swapping. There'll be some changes in land. And the word that they will use is, they make changes. We're going to change the lines, the battle lines.
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FREEMAN: OK. So Ukrainian president though, Zelenskyy has repeatedly said his country will not cede land, noting the Ukrainian constitution does not allow it. In a statement issued before President Trump spoke, Zelenskyy warned against giving Russia any concessions, saying "Russia refuses to stop the killings and therefore must not receive any rewards or benefits. And this is not just a moral position, it's a rational one. Concessions do not persuade a killer."
Now, in the meantime, U.S. officials are rushing to finalize the details of Friday's summit between Trump and Putin, officials making their way to Alaska to scout out venues, a sign of just how hastily this meeting, one that would usually take months to plan, is coming together. The Trump Administration is also still clarifying the exact outlines of the expected conversations.
Now, U.S. diplomat told CNN, there's still a chance Ukraine's Zelenskyy could be invited on Friday. President Trump also said today he intends for Zelenskyy to meet with Putin after the summit. Boris?
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Let's dig deeper with CNN Military Analyst, Retired Air Force Colonel Cedric Leighton. Colonel Leighton, always great to have you. So this land swapping between Ukraine and Russia as the president put it, some good, some bad; some bad, some good. What territory can Ukraine get out of this?
COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Well, this is going to be really interesting, Boris, because what you're looking at here is territory that the Russians have held first since 2014. These areas right here.
SANCHEZ: Yeah.
LEIGHTON: Then they also want to get the Donbas and basically these two areas, the Donetsk and Luhansk. So they want this, and they also want to keep this area right here, which is -- this is what the Russians want to keep, this area right here. Now, what the Ukrainians would like, of course, is as much of this as possible they would want to have in their hands. And so when you go into the Donetsk region itself, the Donbas region, there are some really interesting things that the Ukrainians absolutely have to keep. And that's these areas right here.
What these are, are basically the fortress line that the Ukrainians have. So down from Slovyansk all the way to Kostyantynivka, each of these towns is a fortress area for the Ukrainians, and they've basically kept the Russians at bay. If the Russians move forward into this area, what you would see then is the Russians trying to capture all of this. What they want is all of the Donetsk region, all of the Luhansk region which they've almost got basically right now. But if they capture all of this, this puts Ukraine in a much more weakened strategic position and that, of course, is what Ukraine wants to avoid.
SANCHEZ: Zooming back out, one thing that President Trump talked about was having access to waterfront through the Black Sea, through the Sea of Azov. I wonder what the likelihood is that Ukraine is going to maintain that access for shipping, for defense versus the ambitions that Russia has to close off Ukraine from that area. Is that an area that the Russians are now going to target potentially?
LEIGHTON: Potentially, they will because Odessa sits right about here. And this area is basically, this is Ukraine's major port city. This is where all of Ukraine's, almost all of Ukraine's agricultural trade goes. And that becomes a really important thing because this area right here, the Ukrainians have been able to maintain control over most of it, this area, right in -- this portion right here, the Russians have control of that. They will probably not allow the Ukrainians to come in here and retake this area. This is where you had Mariupol and the battle of that particular area, that massive battle, all of that is basically something that the Russians want to keep. Now, the Ukrainians have done a lot of damage to the Russian Navy, the Black Sea fleet here, and they have every right, from the standpoint of international law, international commerce, to maintain all of these areas. Losing Odessa would be a very big problem for the Ukrainians.
SANCHEZ: To the point that we just heard Danny make, President Zelenskyy saying that concessions do not persuade someone like Vladimir Putin. We know that Ukraine struck in Russian territory, going after a plant that manufactures cruise missiles. Tell us more about that.
LEIGHTON: So when you look at some of the things that have -- that have happened here, first of all, let's go back to the -- to the area right in here. The Russians have several plants that are active from a defense industry standpoint. The Ukrainians have been able to strike some of these in these areas, right around -- right around here and a bit further up. And what that means is that they're holding at risk a lot of Russian industry. So, the Ukrainians are not on as much of a back foot as some would have us believe.
The Ukrainians do have a major capability that allows them to attack Russia and remember, Operation Spiderweb, that affected basically the entire country of Russia and affected defense plants, air bases, all of those kinds of things.
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So, the Ukrainians do have potent capabilities. The question is how long can they keep the territories right in through this area? And how long will they be at an even greater strategic disadvantage, both in the central area as well as, obviously, in the east and in the South.
SANCHEZ: Yeah. And the core of this, I think comes down to what we heard from President Trump today and his argument that Russia has made its business war. Is Vladimir Putin willing to now make concessions based on economic terms? Quickly, Colonel, before we go, do you think Zelenskyy shows up in Alaska later this week?
LEIGHTON: I think it's highly unlikely that Zelenskyy will show up in Alaska, but it's also -- may not be to his advantage to show up in Alaska because I -- right now, this is something between Putin and Trump. And if Zelenskyy has to reject these terms, let's say the Russians want all of this territory and hypothetically, Trump agrees to that, that would be completely unacceptable to the Ukrainians. And what the Ukrainians want to do diplomatically is they want to get the Europeans on their side, have a united front with Europe, and use that as a counterweight against Russia and possibly against Trump.
SANCHEZ: Col. Cedric Leighton, always appreciate the expertise. Thanks for being with us.
LEIGHTON: You bet. Thank you. SANCHEZ: Still plenty more to come this afternoon. Milwaukee County declaring a state of emergency after a monster storm triggers flooding. We'll have (ph) the details coming in just moments.
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FREEMAN: Parts of the Midwest still reeling from flash flooding over the weekend, could get even more rain today. The Milwaukee area, which just had its second wettest day in 154 years is getting another dose of showers this evening. The city's fire department says it performed about 65 water rescues despite hundreds of abandoned vehicles blocking the roads. Now, the historic rainfall was part of the same system that unleashed fierce winds like these in Nebraska, killing one person and injuring another. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is here. Derek, tell us what more are you tracking?
DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, Danny. It was a tremendous amount of rain that fell across Milwaukee, into the state of Wisconsin. We're talking about Saturday night into Sunday. And this still needs to be confirmed, but a rain gage just northwest of Milwaukee registered 14.5 inches of rain. That would be the most rain in a 24-hour period in the state's record books. That's incredible. Of course, that led unfortunately to scenes like this, turning roads into rivers.
Look at all the debris just getting picked up by this flash flooding. That's just simply too much rain too quickly in such a short period of time. And unfortunately, it's going to lead to the flooding of businesses and homes like you're seeing on your monitors right now. So, what happened and what's to come? OK, we've got this, what's called a radar estimated rainfall total. So here's Milwaukee, this is Lake Michigan, and you can see that the highest rainfall totals above 10 inches.
Look at the legend on the top portion of the screen there. That is just an incredible amount of rain that fell from the sky during the system. So, the good news is the rains generally come to an end, but we've got that water streaming into the rivers and the local streams and waterway. So, it's got to take some time for it to completely level out. But there's the potential here for a few additional rain showers, but nothing too heavy.
The real heavy stuff is located just to the west. We've got a new flash flood watch that's indicated across Oklahoma and portions of Texas. Also, some heftier rainfall following some disturbed weather in the Gulf and just off the southeast coastline. But these are the two areas that we're watching out for, for the potential of additional flooding concerns with our heightened risk here across central Oklahoma. We certainly don't want to see more scenes like this. This is coming out of Milwaukee again from the weekend, where this historic rainfall took place. Danny?
FREEMAN: Man, and again, don't drive through flood waters if you can help it. Derek Van Dam, thanks so much. Appreciate it. VAN DAM: Best advice.
FREEMAN: All right, coming up next, cannabis stocks on a, let's say, high today after what President Trump just said about marijuana. We have more on that coming up next on "CNN News Central."
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FREEMAN: New today, President Trump confirming his administration is considering softening laws on marijuana and that a decision could be coming soon.
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TRUMP: Some people like it; some people hate it. Some people hate the whole concept of marijuana because it does bad for the children, it does bad for people that are older than children. It is a very complicated subject, the subject of, marijuana. I've heard great things having to do with medical, and I've had bad things having to do with just about everything else, but medical and -- you know, for pain and various things, I've heard some pretty good things. But for other things, I've heard some pretty bad things.
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SANCHEZ: As you can hear there, the president is pretty split on this. CNN's Steve Contorno joins us now. Steve, you're hearing that there's disagreement within Trump's staff over whether marijuana should be rescheduled.
STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: That's right, Boris. There are some deep divisions even among Donald Trump's staff allies and advisers over how to proceed on this. There are some who believe that it's a net bad, that the smell, that the potential problems for getting access to more -- children having access to it, to potential crime and gateway drug. All those sort of old arguments you have heard are something that we continue to hear from that camp.
But there are others who have been urging him to push ahead. And his White House actually has been quietly taking steps to ready a potential action. I'm told there's actually a report sitting on the desk of his Chief of Staff Susie Wiles right now, weighing the pros and cons of a policy change. And what is especially under consideration is changing marijuana's federal classification.
Right now, it is considered a Schedule 1 drug, that is a drug with no known medical use and a high potential for addiction. It includes drugs like heroin. The consideration is moving it to Schedule 3, which are drugs that have some medical use and less of a chance for addiction and dependency. Now, the people who have been pushing for this, they say that this is not only something that the public wants. When you take a look at polling on marijuana, it polls relatively highly. In fact, you look at only 11 percent of people think that it should have no legal use. The rest think it should at least have some medical use and some very much favor recreational use.
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But they also note that this is a promise that Donald Trump made during the presidential campaign when he was trying to bring in young voters and minority voters and libertarian voters. He promised on social media to usher in a new era of marijuana policy that included access to safer products, more medical research and potentially, less penalties for people who are caught with a small amount of marijuana. So, all of this taking place behind the scenes.
And one other thing I've heard guys is that Trump has also been talking to donors about this. It came up at a recent dinner at his Bedminster Club and he said, it is "something that we are going to look at."
SANCHEZ: Steve Contorno, thank you so much for the update. We'll keep an eye on that story. Up next, we're following breaking news in Pennsylvania. Officials there are now urging some residents to stay indoors after this major explosion at a steel coking plant near Pittsburgh. The latest in just minutes.
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