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Trump Takes Over D.C. Police, Warns Same May Happen in Other Cities; Three Dead, Including a Child, After Shooting in Target Parking Lot; Investigation Underway After Steel Plant Blast Kills Two, Injures Ten. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired August 12, 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]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: We have new reporting this morning on how President Trump could move to expand his federal policing power even beyond Washington, D.C.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And this morning, they are still searching for the cause of that massive steel plant explosion, a blast that killed two people, wounded ten others. We are learning more about the victims and hearing from their grieving and frustrated families.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: And it's a whole new era, Swifties. Taylor's 12th album has officially been confirmed. The announcement that's breaking the music industry and the internet, literally.

I'm Jessica Dean with John Berman and Kate Bolduan. Sara Sidner is out and this is CNN News Central.

BERMAN: So, what does Washington, D.C., look like this morning and what cities might be next, key questions after President Trump announced an unprecedented expansion of federal policing power in the nation's capital, all in the name of fighting crime. And while crime is absolutely present in D.C., as it is in other major cities, the trends do not match his descriptions.

New images from overnight, federal officers on the streets, and we are watching the Washington, D.C. Armory, where this morning we could see National Guard troops report for duty. The president is mobilizing roughly 800 guard members there. And while his powers are unique in Washington, he suggested he would try to figure out ways to flex elsewhere as well.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We have other cities also that are bad, very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem.

We're not going to lose our cities over this, and this will go further.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: And while the president has portrayed D.C. as a crime-ridden hellscape, the statistics from police show the violent crime is down 26 percent there compared to this time last year. Washington, D.C.'s Mayor Muriel Bowser calls the move, quote, unsettling and unprecedented and warns that it could result in the public losing trust in the police department.

Let's get right to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House. What is the latest from there this morning, Alayna?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, John, I think a key question, of course, is what this is all going to look like moving forward. Now, we know what the president said yesterday in his federal takeover of this city that they're deploying 800 National Guard troops, hundreds of FBI, ATF, DEA agents among others.

And the question is how long is this actually going to happen. Now, we know with the authority that he announced that he has yesterday, that Section 740 of the home rule, D.C. home rule, that allows him to continue, you know, this widespread takeover of D.C. with federal law enforcement until mid-September. After that point, we're going to have to see. You know, he would need Congressional authority. And it's a key question, of course, of whether, not only the president wants to do that, but if Congress would even allow that.

And there's a lot of questions internally, not just here, John, but throughout the city as well with local D.C. government, you mentioned the mayor, that's included about what this is actually going to look like. Because we know from our reporting that a lot of people in the local government here in Washington were kind of cut off-guard by this. They had been given a heads up about the National Guard troops being activated, but did not know at the time when he was announcing that he was going to be having this federal takeover, that that was going to actually happen. And so there's questions of what this will look like and what these agents on the ground are actually going to be doing.

But I think an even bigger question, of course, is related to that sound you just played of what this could mean for the rest of the country and not just Washington. Because he said almost that, you know, this could be a model potentially for cities like Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, all ones that the president mentioned, of what he wants to do in trying to crack down on crime.

Again, very unclear at this moment what the president is thinking and if he's ever going to actually act on that, but we do know there's many Democrats who have been kind of struggling with the politics of this. That's a key question. We don't know how is this going to play politically, trying to figure out what that could look like in other cities.

Of course, D.C. is different. It is not a state, and so there's kind of a gray area here, giving the president more power to actually announce this federal takeover and put it into action. That's not necessarily the case though with other states, so a big question looking forward.

But, look, I think the bottom line here, and really the big picture when it comes to the president himself is why is he doing this now and why is he moving forward with this, particularly at a time, as you mentioned, where we have seen crime numbers drop in D.C.

[07:05:07]

Yes, they hit a peak back in 2023, but they have fallen since then. So, the question is why now?

And I think part of that is of course, understanding how the president wants to paint himself. He wants to paint himself as a law and order president, as someone which we've seen even more so this term than second term, trying to test the bounds of his executive power. This is also something that we know he tried to do during his first term, but then was convinced against it. This is something that has been simmering in him for many years now.

And so that's part of what really plays into all of this. But, again, key questions about what this will actually look like moving forward and how it's going to play politically, still unclear.

BERMAN: And we are waiting to see some of those National Guard troops arrive at the D.C. Armory this morning. Alayna Treene at the White House, thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And on this joining us right now, CNN Senior Law Enforcement Analyst and former Deputy Director of the FBI Andrew McCabe. Thanks for waking up, Andy, to join us.

What are these FBI agents that are going to be deployed going to do now? I mean, if you're back in your former role as deputy director of the FBI, what are you telling staff today?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, Kate, what they're going to do now in this new role is really a great question, because policing the streets of D.C. or any other city is not something that FBI agents do. It's not what they're trained for. It's not a part of their background.

Very few FBI agents come from prior law enforcement experience. Many are -- you know, all kinds of other different careers come into the FBI not necessarily exclusively law enforcement. Even the most highly trained, most kind of tactically astute agents, those who are assigned to SWAT teams, they don't do the SWAT team as a full-time job. That's in addition to their case and investigative responsibilities on other substantive squads. So, they'll be placed in a situation that they're not trained for. They're not particularly well-prepared for. They'll try to do it well because they're good people.

The thing that's more star stark to me, is what they won't be doing. And what they won't be doing is all those things that are the FBI's responsibilities. They won't be searching for terrorists in our country. They won't be following spies around D.C., one of the cities in this country that's most saturated with foreign intelligence officers. They won't be chasing fraudsters, looking for people who are victimizing children online. None of those things that are part of the FBI's core mission are going to be done by these agents, these hundreds of agents, presumably, who will be assigned to patrol the streets of D.C.

BOLDUAN: I want to play once again what the president suggested yesterday, which was that he will not stop in D.C. He -- this could even go further. Let me play this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have other cities also that are bad, very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. And we have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. We don't even mention that anymore. They're so far gone.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: L.A.'s mayor said yesterday that she really does view the president's intervention in Los Angeles previously as a test case, and she now also thinks that the president's intervention in D.C. is also a test case. Do you see it that way?

MCCABE: Yes, I think she's really onto something there. I mean, certainly, the recent history would bear that out. I think another good piece of evidence in that case is the fact that the predication or the excuse, the facts that you would base this decision on, which the president gave us yesterday, were false. If you listen to his comments, he was quoting crime statistics from 2023. The fact is there's been an exceedingly steep decline in violent crimes in D.C. and indeed around the rest of the country since 2023, as we came out of the pandemic.

So, his numbers are completely wrong. He made comparisons between the District and, you know, crime statistics in Baghdad. I'm quite sure we don't have accurate crime statistics for Baghdad or Lima, Peru, or any of these other places he referred to. So, it really has to -- it's got to raise questions in your mind as to what the true purpose of this is. There's no actual crime emergency happening in D.C. Is there crime in D.C.? Of course, there is, and it's a constant issue that the D.C. authorities are responsible for. But the emergency that he is now declaring is pretty much baseless. So, what's the real purpose here?

BOLDUAN: It's interesting because Juliette Kayyem said just this morning, that the -- especially looking at the National Guard deployment, 100 or 200 on duty at a time, that she sees it kind of as an imaginary threat because the crime stats don't bear it out, and now an imaginary deployment and a solution for it.

[07:10:03]

Let's see what happens today because we could be seeing some of that deployment play out this morning.

Andy, it's good to see you. Thank you so much. Jessica? DEAN: This morning at least three people, including a child, are dead after a gunman opened fire in a Target parking lot in Austin, Texas. Police say the shooter then stole a car, crashed, stole another car, before they caught up to him about 20 miles away. Officers then tased him and arrested him.

CNN just obtained dispatch audio of officers describing that suspect while he was on the run.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's going to be a white male, Hawaiian shirt and cargo pants at large somewhere in the close to the 1050 on Research.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Police say that suspect does have a criminal record and a history of mental illness. The victims have not yet been identified. Austin's mayor calling that shooting a cowardly act of violence, and the police chief called it a sad day for the entire city. Target releasing a statement saying it's devastated by the violence and that its hearts are with the families and loved ones of those killed. The company also said it's working with law enforcement on that investigation.

Still to come this morning, what investigators are saying about -- saying this morning about the cause of an explosion at a Pennsylvania steel plant that left two people dead, more than 100 -- or more than ten, excuse me, injured.

And new video showing the moments a small plane crash landed into another plane parked at a Montana airport, how the pilot and passengers managed to walk away from that fiery explosion.

And new CNN reporting this morning, how police are using A.I. in law enforcement with some experts warning it could have major ramifications.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:15:00]

BERMAN: New this morning, an investigation underway into what caused a deadly explosion at a steel plant near Pittsburgh. Two people were killed, at least ten others injured. Witnesses say a large blast, it felt like thunder, was followed by a series of smaller blasts.

Let's get right to CNN's Gabe Cohen for the latest in Pittsburgh. Gabe, what are you learning this morning?

GABE COHE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. So, John, overnight we got this tragic update from local police here in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, who told us that after hours of searching through the rubble here at this U.S. steel facility, crews were able to locate that last missing worker. But, sadly, he died in the explosion, bringing that death toll to two. Ten other workers injured in the blast, five of them as of last night still in the hospital, still in critical condition.

And this morning, we're also learning more about the other worker who was killed in the blast, 39-year-old Timothy Quinn. I spoke to his sister. She told me that Timothy was a loving father, three children, a caregiver to their mother and somebody who lit up the room, John, every time he entered it.

And I want to play a clip. Here's a little bit of what Timothy's friend said about him last night. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID WHEATLEY, CO-WORKER KILLED IN PLANT EXPLOSION: He had kids. I mean, he loved his family. He talked about his kids all the time. And then it just comes down to -- he was a good dude. I mean, I really -- like I said, I really can't say much more. I mean, he was one of the best guys that I've ever worked with in operations.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: And so this community, John, is shaken this morning by what's happened, and obviously they want answers. And now this search and rescue and recovery operation is going to really shift into the investigation.

As of yesterday, a U.S. Steel executive said, as far as the company could tell, the facility here and the specific area where the explosion happened seem to be in good working conditions heading into yesterday. And so now we know that investigators are here at the scene sifting through the wreckage, trying to piece all of this together.

But, obviously, John, the families who have been impacted, they are going to want answers. And, hopefully, those investigators can provide something to them soon.

BERMAN: Yes, what happened? I mean, such an important question here. Gabe Cohen, thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, an economist who once said that DOGE should, quote/unquote, take a chainsaw to the Bureau of Labor Statistics will now be in charge of running it. President Trump has nominated E.J. Antoni to be the new commissioner for the agency, which is in charge of reporting out all sorts of important government data, from jobs numbers to inflation numbers.

The president made waves a couple weeks ago when he suddenly fired the previous boss there after a dismal July jobs report. Trump accused her of rigging the data without any evidence to back that up, but in firing her, raising new doubt and concern about how the administration will hand handle future releases of economic data. The July CPI report will be released this morning.

Antoni currently works at the conservative think tank, the Heritage Foundation. He is a frequent critic of the workforce that he may soon lead. His nomination needs to now be confirmed by the Senate.

Still ahead for us, new dash cam video of a massive lightning strike in South Carolina. What we are learning now about the damage that it caused.

And prepare yourself. Taylor Swift announces her 12th album as Swifties go full Sherlock Holmes now searching for clues about what it could sound like.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAYLOR SWIFT: So, I wanted to show you something.

[07:20:00]

JASON KELCE: Okay. What do we got?

TAYLOR SWIFT: We got a --

JASON KELCE: Briefcase.

TAYLOR SWIFT: Yes.

JASON KELCE: Mint green with T.S. on it.

TAYLOR SWIFT: Yes. Yes.

JASON KELCE: What's in it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DEAN: At 12:12 on August 12th, T.T. 12 finally got a name, The Life of a Showgirl, and a trailer for an upcoming episode of Travis Kelce's New Heights podcast in which Taylor will make a guest appearance. She made the much awaited announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So, I wanted to show you something.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Okay. What do we got?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We got a --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Briefcase.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mint green with T.S. on it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's in it?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is my brand new album, The Life of a Showgirl.

[07:25:00]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: T.S. 12.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: From The Chairman to The Showgirl, We are now in a new era.

And joining us now, Bryan West, Taylor Swift, reporter for the USA Today Network. Thanks so much for being here with us this morning.

As we noted, 12th album announced at 12:12 August 12th. Taylor Swift loves some symbolism. She loves to drop some Easter eggs. Walk us through all the hints we have around this album.

BRYAN WEST, TAYLOR SWIFT REPORTER, USA TODAY NETWORK: Good morning, Jessica. So, yes, the number is 12. Fans were so excited last night when a three-hour countdown appeared on her website before 12:12 A.M. Eastern Time. There was this orange glittery background, which is the same background that we saw on the New Heights post with Travis Kelce that was teasing a special surprise guest. Well, Taylor Swift fans have been using their Sherlock Holmes magnifying glasses to find every single clue that has led up to this. But the main clue is the orange and also this aesthetic of diamonds of a showgirl.

DEAN: Yes. And there is also this new playlist on her Spotify account. It's titled, And, Baby, That's Show Business for You. And fans have noticed that every song on this playlist, these fans, they do a lot of detective work, it's produced by Max Martin and Shellback. So, what kind of clues does that give to the direction of this new album?

WEST: I think what that shows on this album is this might be the third project or collaboration between Swift, Max Martin and also Shellback. They did 1989 in reputation. So, if that's any indication of heading back into maybe more of a pop or earworm vibe, that's where we're heading this fall, this what fans think might be October, what they were quick to notice is as soon as you ordered the vinyls or the cassettes on her website, the shipping date was October 13th. And although that isn't reflective of when the album's going to come out, it's around the time that she may be releasing it to the world.

DEAN: Yes. And it's also worth noting, she makes this huge announcement very publicly with her boyfriend, Travis Kelce, on his podcast that he does with his brother. We've really seen her and really them together embracing their fame, using that when it makes sense for them being public when they feel comfortable with it. That's a real shift.

WEST: There has been -- he has served almost as a conduit when it comes to Taylor Swift news. So, we saw this during the Airs tour. She changed the lyric to Karma is the guy on the Chiefs. She brought him out on stage during the showgirl portion of her show. I can do it with a broken heart in London. She also performed a surprise song at one of his charity events here in Nashville at Tight End University, went on stage with Kane Brown.

So, we're seeing that there is a huge comfortability. She trusts him. They're also very much in it together. They're both kind of making this announcement on New Heights. You can even see during the teaser that Jason, it seems as shocked, while Travis is like T.S. 12. So, it seems that he has a heads-up, but they truly are doing this together.

I find the timing also really interesting, very Taylor Swift, that she's going into her 12th era right before football season, his 13th year. Think of how many times this album's going to be talked about before it actually goes out.

DEAN: Listen, she's the best at this for a reason. She knows what she's doing. Bryan West, thank you so much. John?

BERMAN: I was telling everyone who would listen, the orange and the diamonds, they absolutely were significant. They meant something.

All right, the president's unprecedented expansion of federal policing muscle, what cities might be next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We have other cities also that are bad, very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: What are the legal limits to these moves?

And this morning, new details about a runway collision, what led up to this fiery crash.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:30:00]