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Trump Takes Over D.C. Police; Van R. Johnson is Interviewed about the D.C. Police Takeover; Shooting at a Target Parking Lot in Texas; Steve Moore Talks about the D.C. Takeover; Conservative Media Rallies Around Trump. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired August 12, 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]

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Punctured a hole in somebody's house in northern Georgia. So, they sent this rock, this extraterrestrial rock, to a laboratory. Scientists actually found out, this is new, that this rock is actually older than the earth itself, 4.56 billion years old, according to scientists. And that is because it is part of a much larger asteroid that broke up over 470 million years ago. And it just happened to collide with earth at this time.

Hey, John, now you can see why this meteorologist likes this field of study. Because, remember, meteorology, the study of falling objects from the sky. This is it.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Meteorologistoid (ph) I think is actually the correct term based on what you just told me.

VAN DAM: A new term.

BERMAN: All right, Derek Van Dam, thank you very much.

A brand-new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: This morning, President Trump's D.C. crackdown is a major escalation in exercising federal power. He claims crime rates and homelessness are out of control. But what does the data reveal? And could he make the same move in other cities?

Also this morning, investigators in Texas searching for answers after a deadly shooting in a Target parking lot. A child is among three people killed there. We're going to tell you what we know about the suspected gunman.

And this is what Taylor Swift meant when she said, see you next era. The singer's highly anticipated 12th studio album now officially has a name. We'll tell you what we know about "The Life of a Showgirl."

I'm Jessica Dean, with John Berman and Kate Bolduan this morning. Sara Sidner is out. And this is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: New this morning, National Guard troops arriving at the D.C. armory, as you see right there. They're reporting for duty after President Trump announced his unprecedented federal takeover of the city's police department.

And also overnight, federal law enforcement were staging across southeast D.C. All of this raising the question, if this is D.C. now, what cities could be next? In his announcement, the president did suggest that he's looking at Chicago, L.A., New York, Baltimore and Oakland. His plans call for the deployment in D.C. of roughly 800 National Guard troops. Add to that, agents from the FBI, ATF, and DEA have already been seen on D.C. streets.

The president says that he's doing this and going about this because crime is out of control in the nation's capital. But as we have been reminded over and over again, the statistics tell a very different story, with violent crime dropping 26 percent from last year, now at a 30-year low there.

CNN's Alayna Treene is at the White House for us this hour.

Alayna, what are you hearing and seeing this morning?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, look, as for what I'm seeing, I mean there's definitely -- we've had a lot of people, myself included, but some of our colleagues who have been noticing the uptick, of course, in federal law enforcement, seeing these agents actually on the ground. Of course, we have not seen the National Guard yet. They have been activated, but we have not seen them physically in the streets yet. We're waiting for them to arrive, as you said, in D.C., momentarily this week.

But look, I think a key question, of course, as well is what exactly are we going to expect from them? Now, first of all, we do know that the president and the White House said that one of the focuses of having these law -- these federal law enforcement officials in the city is to focus on high traffic areas, tourist areas, et cetera, not necessarily the places in D.C. where we know crime is a little bit more rampant. So, we're still waiting to see exactly how all of this plays out.

And part of that as well is we know that many people in the local D.C. government here, including the mayor, Muriel Bowser, were kind of caught off guard by some of this. They had been alerted that the president was going to be bringing in the National Guard, but they did not know, according to our conversations here, that the president was going to be announcing a federal takeover of the city and -- and using the D.C. home rule act to implement it.

Now, we did hear from the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, yesterday, who described how he imagines these officials or these officers are going to be working essentially alongside local law enforcement. Listen to how he put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETE HEGSETH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: We're going to work right alongside our law enforcement partners as force multipliers.

They're not going to be involved in law enforcement functions. They will be standing right alongside our federal agents, like they were in Los Angeles. They're going to be proactive. If you take an action or a shot at them, there will be a consequence.

There's no rogue law enforcement going on from the National Guard, but there's also the application of common sense.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: Now that comes, his comments, after we had also heard the president say yesterday that, you know, they can do whatever the hell they want, is what -- how he put it during that press conference announcing all of this. So, keep that in mind.

Now, some questions, of course, that I think many people have, and we're still trying to get the answers to.

[09:05:01]

One is, how long can we expect these federal law enforcement officials to be in the city? Well, the president has 30 days that he's allowed to continue this takeover. That takes us to mid-September. After that, he would need congressional approval to keep them here. Key question, of course, is whether or not he will actually get that or if he even wants it to continue beyond that. And I think a big part of that, of course, is going to see how this all ends up playing politically, of course.

Another question as well is why now and why the timing of all of this? We know that part of this was stemmed from a high-profile former DOJ official being assaulted in the city. But we also know that this is something the president has long complained about. It's something that's been really simmering, not just throughout the last few months in his second term, but going all the way back to his first term. He wanted to do this then as well, but the people around him encouraged him not to. And so we're seeing that kind of play out now.

But again, a lot of questions about how this is actually going to look in practice and how long we can expect it. All of those still very much unclear, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

Alayna Treene at the White House for us. Thank you so much, Alyana.

John

BERMAN: With us now, Van R. Johnson, the mayor of Savannah, Georgia.

Mayor, thanks so much for being with us.

The president's authority in Washington, D.C., is different than -- than in other cities around the country. But be that as it may, I am curious what your initial reaction was when you heard the scope of what he's doing in Washington.

MAYOR VAN R. JOHNSON (D), SAVANNAH, GEORGIA: Well, good morning and thank you so much for the opportunity.

I was absolutely shocked. I mean, where is this coming from? I mean, where are the facts coming from? I think you point out very correctly that Washington, D.C., has reached an historic 30 year low in -- in violent crime. Certainly, many of the mayors of the African American Mayors Association, of which I'm the president, have seen historic decreases in -- in violent crime across the country.

I think that Mayor Bowser has been doing a phenomenal job, her and her team, addressing these issues in our nation's capital. And so, we were just wondering, you know, why this and why now?

BERMAN: As you mentioned, you are the president of the African American Mayors Association. Some 500 mayors are represented around the country. What have you been hearing from them over the last 24 hours?

JOHNSON: Again, I think for us it's -- it's, you know, mayors are charged with solving problems. And certainly we are looking for ways to partner with the Trump administration. We understand elections. We understand the consequences of elections, but we recognize that we have to play with whoever's on the field.

And so, we want the federal government, the Trump administration, to be our partners, to help us deal with issues as it relates to the iron pipeline, where guns go across jurisdictions, issues of drugs and human trafficking, and issues that we deal with in our cities every day.

Obviously, this is a -- is extremely disappointing. It's extremely concerning. And certainly for -- for Mayor Bowser and her team, who's been doing such a great job to -- to get this type of news, we're always wondering what's next.

BERMAN: You know this as a mayor, any mayor knows this, even if crime is trending down, which the statistics show that it is in Washington, D.C., there is still crime.

JOHNSON: Yes.

BERMAN: And people still say, hey, you know, any crime is too much crime. So, what do you say to people who say, look, why not try to reduce it with the powers that he has in Washington even more?

JOHNSON: Well, I think the fact is, crime is a function of the human experience. I think as long as we've had people from Cain and Abel, we've always had crime. But when you look at the facts, when you look at D.C., when you look at New York, when you look at Baltimore, when you look at Atlanta, when you look at Savannah, the fact is, is that mayors and cities are making these things happen by -- by working within their networks and really very -- being very creative in getting these issues addressed.

The fact is, is that we need our federal partners and we want our federal partners. There is a danger we're militarizing police departments. And we all know what that happen -- what happened in cities across the country when you had the military trying to do police work. It's two totally different functions. As a former law enforcement officer, I will tell you that.

BERMAN: You mentioned that crime is trending down, the statistics show in Washington or around the country in other major cities as well. Why? Why do you think it is trending down?

JOHNSON: Because mayors and city administrators, city managers, police chiefs, communities have dug in to address the root causes of crime. And there are a variety of things. Some are economic. Some are psychological. And so we have to be able to address those things. And I think, again, we should be lifting up the magnificent job that these cities are doing and addressing these things. And we want the Trump administration, we want our federal government, hey, be our partner in this. Help us. Let us show best practices across the country. Let us talk about funding for strategies that are able to work.

[09:10:00]

This is certainly not a partnership as -- as we would see it. This is -- this is something totally different. And I think for us, you know, we're -- we're scratching our head. I mean certainly mayors like Mayor Bowser should be rewarded for the work that she's doing. This is totally unprecedented and certainly scary.

BERMAN: Mayor Van R. Johnson, mayor of Savannah, Georgia, a beautiful city, thank you so much for being with us this morning. Appreciate your time, sir.

Jessica.

DEAN: This morning, a suspect is in custody in Texas, accused of killing three people at a Target, including a child. The latest details in a live report. That's just ahead.

Plus, we're now days away from President Trump's high stakes summit with Vladimir Putin tat may or may not include Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The new demand E.U. leaders are making this morning on behalf of Ukraine.

And artificial intelligence is transforming how some police departments do their paperwork. But some experts are sounding a warning on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:15:35]

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 suspect stole two cars before they caught up to him about 20 miles away and arrested him. CNN has 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, tan cargo pants at large somewhere in the close to the 1050 on Research.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Joining us now is CNN's Ed Lavandera. He's joining us from Austin.

And, Ed, the mayor there is calling this a sickening, cowardly act of gun violence as this investigation continues. What more are they learning?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they pointed to a -- the issue of mental health being a factor in this shooting. And it's the sixth high-profile attack that we've seen in recent weeks where mental health issues was listed as a contributing factor into -- into the attack. And this has happened in various places all across the country. But this particular attack unfolded in the parking lot of a Target store in north Austin just after 2:00 yesterday afternoon. According to police, the suspect shot and killed three people, two adults and a child, then stole a vehicle, fled that scene, and then crash -- had a crash with that vehicle, jumped out of the car and went to a Volkswagen dealership, stole another car and then was apprehended sometime later after police had tracked him down in south Austin, miles away from where the original shooting had taken place.

Witnesses describe being incredibly shaken by the way things unfolded in that parking lot yesterday afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I thought that this only happened like in the news and stuff. And then, like, I kind of just froze. Like, I just never thought that I would, you know, like, experience this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just a lot. Mental strain of having to see, like, dead bodies and -- and blood and -- and guns.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: A troubling time here because many of the families that we were at the scene yesterday, and as they were escorting people who were inside the store away, we noticed that there were a number of adults with their young children. Obviously, back to school shopping season. And people going to places like -- like a Target parking lot to get into the store and get the supplies that they need. So, all of this unfolding at a very tragic time. And the mayor describes this as a very sad day for the city.

DEAN: Yes, just really traumatizing for -- for everyone there.

All right, Ed Lavandera, thank you very much, from Austin, Texas.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Still ahead for us, after criticizing the White House response to the ongoing Epstein saga, some of the president's most prominent voices now in media are rallying around his crackdown on crime.

And Taylor Swift drops a bombshell surprise announcement. The sneak peek she's giving into her 12th studio album.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: OK. What have we got?

SWIFT: We got a --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A briefcase.

SWIFT: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mint green with TS on it?

SWIFT: Yes. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What's in it?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:23:36]

DEAN: This morning, after ordering a federal takeover of Washington, D.C., police, President Trump is putting major cities like New York, L.A. and Chicago on notice, you could be next. The president has mobilized 800 National Guard troops to the capital, he says, in an effort to fight crime. That is despite violent crime declining over the past two years in Washington.

A 1973 law gives him the power to do this, but only in Washington, D.C., and only for a short amount of time, unless Congress steps in.

Let's bring in CNN law enforcement contributor and retired supervisory special agent for the FBI, Steve Moore.

Steve, good to see you this morning.

Let's start first, what -- help us understand what federal control over a major city like Washington, D.C.'s police department might look like, especially when coupled with this surge of federal agents and National Guard troops.

STEVE MOORE, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CONTRIBUTOR: Well, there's -- there's a little bit of precedent for it. In some -- in the past there's been judges that have ruled, or the Department of Justice have ruled that cities are not complying with civil rights laws, things like this. And there is a court-ordered monitoring of their -- of their policing. This would be a little bit different in that, you know, the -- D.C. is not really a state or a city. It is a federal enclave, which means that the government, Congress, the president, they have significant control over it, obviously.

[09:25:07]

DEAN: Right. And -- but what -- do we know what practically it might look like for these D.C. police officers?

MOORE: Well, my understanding is, from -- from the limited information that's come out is there are going to be something like 130 FBI agents, something like that, who will be embedded with the police in the area, hopefully taking some of the burden off of the officers that are -- that are doing the patrolling. Maybe increase manpower a little bit. But that's not a huge amount of people. Although I understand that they're probably going to try to do it on -- on the overnight shift, which would be a -- a heavy increase at that point.

DEAN: And look, you -- you spent time -- a lot of time with the FBI. Help people understand, is this something that -- that FBI agents are used to doing? My understanding is this is not typically what they're -- they're not going around arresting people on the streets. They -- they are federal agents that -- that -- that act on federal warrants. But -- but help people understand what they're normally doing and how this is different.

MOORE: You know, the best example I can give is that -- there's -- there's a heart surgeon and there's an orthopedist. They're both doctors. They're both great. They -- they know what they're doing and they're experts in their field, but they don't cover for each other when they're on vacation. You're not going to have a heart surgeon working on your knees and an orthopedist working on your heart.

In the same way, and maybe not to such a severe extent, the FBI are investigators. They -- they do make arrests. They do, you know, their SWAT teams go out and do make violent crime arrests in, you know, gangs and things like this. And police departments, though, know their streets. They know the -- they have kind of tribal knowledge of what's going on in their areas. And they understand the city and they patrol. That is the difference. FBI agents investigate. They don't patrol.

So, while there are law enforcement skills that are common, there has to be some kind of, you know, way that they can melt their skills.

DEAN: Yes, and valuable context in this -- in this case.

Steve Moore, thanks so much. We appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: This morning, some of the biggest voices in MAGA media are uniting now around President Trump's unprecedented expansion of federal policing power in Washington, D.C., quickly rallying around the president after just a short time ago, many of them were speaking out against the Trump administration's handling, or fumbling, of the Epstein saga.

CNN's chief media analyst Brian Stelter tracking this one for us.

And, Brian, what are you seeing here?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA ANALYST: There were lots of people yesterday saying, hey, is this a distraction? Is Trump trying to distract from the Epstein scandal? Well, here's the more interesting -- here's the better question, is it working or not? And I'm here to tell you, yes, it is working. If this was a distraction, yes, it is succeeding. You do see big MAGA media influencers. People like Mike Cernovich and Alex Jones very much backing the president with this crime crackdown, even though they've spent much of the summer criticizing Trump and pressing for more information out of the DOJ and the FBI about Epstein.

Of course, the Epstein crimes, a very different case. This D.C. story, we're talking about a very real issue, as so many commentators have pointed out. A very real concern in Washington. And yet a lot of the commentary is about feelings and fears and perceptions, rather than the facts that are at hand. So, very much I'm seeing a consolidation, a rallying of support in MAGA media as some of those commentators and influencers who were critical of Trump earlier this summer, they're very much 100 percent behind him right now because they want to see a strong man type leader trying to take action in cities.

BOLDUAN: And, Brian, you also have noticed that some of the data that the president is citing is coming from Fox News. I mean, what are you finding here?

STELTER: Yes. Yes, it's coming straight from Fox in some cases. And this shows exactly how the Fox feedback loop works, where President Trump watched a segment last week on Will Cain's show. He saw graphs, bar charts, data about crime in D.C. versus other cities and other countries. And then Trump held up those exact same charts at that press conference yesterday.

Here's a sound bite from Will Cain proving the point from last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILL CAIN, FOX NEWS HOST: All right, now, crime in our nation's capital, it's not new. In fact, actually Washington, D.C., is less safe than some capital cities in third world countries.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

STELTER: The feedback loop is very real. In this case you can tell that President Trump prioritizes pictures and PR. He wants to see action on the streets of D.C., even in tourist areas and other areas where there is not a serious crime problem.

[09:29:59]

And right now he's getting the pictures he wants. You know, local stations are out on the streets taking these pictures, getting these videos of this increased deployment. But I think we've known for a