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Moscow Again Refused to Commit to Putin-Zelenskyy Meeting; European Leaders Optimistic After White House Talks, But Voice Distrust of Putin; Interview with Rep. Mike Quigley (D-IL): Trump Signals U.S. Open to Security Guarantees for Ukraine; Missouri AG Bailey to Join Bongino at FBI as Co-Deputy Director. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired August 19, 2025 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: He gives it to his girlfriend, the hitmen get the money, a couple years later, an undercover FBI sting operation goes up to Donna and says, you know, I'm with the Latin Kings and we need a little bit more money here. Donna freaks out, calls her son, says we've got a problem. I think we've got video of when Donna Adelson is actually arrested.

She calls her son after he was convicted, he's serving life in prison, and she says, we've got to find a country that doesn't extradite. Vietnam is where we're going to go. And so they are on the jetway, she and her husband, 2023, November 13th.

She's arrested, boarding that plane to go to Dubai and Vietnam. And now is the trial. She's charged with first degree murder, conspiracy, solicitation.

Jury selection starts today, should take a couple of days, but opening should be later in the week. Camera in the courtroom, so many audio recordings. She's facing life in prison at 75 years old now.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And again, the key here is there have already been people convicted, you know, tied --

CASAREZ: All of them primarily.

BERMAN: -- to this crime.

CASAREZ: Wendy has never been charged. The daughter, Harvey, her husband has not been charged.

BERMAN: All right, we'll be watching. Jean Casarez, thank you very much.

CASAREZ: Thank you.

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

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, Russia attacks as President Trump, Zelenskyy and European leaders are talking peace at the White House. Trump is now trying to bring Putin and Zelenskyy together to the same table to end this war. But Moscow refusing to commit.

President Trump is also vowing to get rid of mail-in voting. But how do voters feel about it? We'll take a look at the numbers.

And a Vegas DJ thought he had handed the mic to Justin Bieber. The only problem is it was not him.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman. Sara is out today. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: All right, we do have breaking news this morning. New Russian strikes on Ukraine, the largest aerial assault since July, and then just a few minutes ago, Moscow refused to commit to a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, though it's stopping short of ruling out any further talks.

Now, the meeting was supposed to be one of the major takeaways, if not the major takeaway from the historic White House summit yesterday. President Trump even posted that he's working on setting up that bilateral meeting between Zelenskyy and Vladimir Putin. But again, just a few minutes ago, the Kremlin said it is only prepared to, quote, raise the level of the delegation it sends to meetings with Ukraine.

And that really is the key this morning, to try to determine what the concrete takeaways were from what were very visibly good feelings at this White House summit yesterday between President Trump, President Zelenskyy, and all these key European leaders you're seeing on the screen right now. They left with good feelings. The question this morning now is, will they get good results?

Let's go right to CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House for the latest. The president continues to say he's setting up the meeting. The Russians continue to throw a little bit of cold water on that -- Alayna.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes, I mean, it was very clear heading into yesterday, John, that that was the goal for the president specifically -- President Trump, I should say. He wanted to be able to get another meeting on the books that included Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy sitting down in the same room. And you saw him.

You know, he did have a 40-minute phone call yesterday in the Oval Office with the Russian leader. He actually paused his ongoing meeting with the seven European leaders and Zelenskyy taking place at the White House to have that conversation with Putin. And then I talked to a White House official who told me he then invited that group back in, the European leaders and Zelenskyy, to the Oval Office after he wrapped that call to fill them in on what was discussed.

And then, of course, we saw his Truth -- his Truth Social post saying that he is making arrangements for a bilateral meeting first between Zelenskyy and Putin and then hopefully a trilateral meeting after that. But you're exactly right. There was a lot of skepticism of whether

that is actually possible, when it could take place, where it would take place. But if the Russians are even willing to agree to that. And I think the key thing here is we're hearing them throw cold water on this idea. I remind you that Putin does not view Zelenskyy as his equal.

You know, he was the one who started the war that invaded Ukraine illegally. And that's really been a problem throughout this entire time. However, there's also not just the president here, but a lot of other top advisers to him are telling him that they believe that the only way to get this solved and to end the war is to have the two of them sit down in the same room and discuss this.

[08:05:00]

And that's kind of what we heard from Bessent this morning when he was on CNBC. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: He invited President Putin to land that the Russians used to own. He displayed a huge amount of military hardware and then did a flyover. It was kind of like inviting your uncontrollable neighbor to your house and showing him your gun case.

And my strong belief is that there will be a bilateral meeting between President Putin and President Zelenskyy. And that's the only way to end this conflict is to get the two sides talking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TREENE: I mean, what a way to describe Vladimir Putin coming to American soil, you know, hearing the treasury secretary say it's like inviting your uncontrollable neighbor to your house and showing them your gun case. So all to say, though, you could hear Bessent there adding that he believes this is the only way to get Putin and Zelenskyy in the same room and try to end the war by getting the two sides to talk.

But one other thing, John, before we go, I just want to reiterate to you a number -- what we heard from a number of European leaders yesterday about being one of the most important things to come out of this summit.

And that was having the United States and having President Donald Trump himself saying he wants to help when it comes to security guarantees for Ukraine. A lot of them, Starmer, Mark Rutte, you know, the U.K. prime minister and the NATO secretary general all saying that was a breakthrough from Monday.

BERMAN: Again, yes, that one of the other concrete takeaway were the discussions about security talks. Again, we're waiting to see what develops. Oftentimes the meetings they're not happening until they are. So we'll just have to wait and see. Alayna Treene, thank you very much -- Kate. BOLDUAN: A great point. And even as the Kremlin is refusing to commit right now to a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy, security guarantees, as John was just saying, are at the center of talks for top European leaders still today. The French president and the British prime minister are leading talks this morning for the 30 nations who are part of what they call and consider themselves the coalition of the willing.

CNN's Clare Sebastian's in London. She's been tracking this one for us. And what are you learning about what's coming out of this now? Another round of meetings today.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, I think what's clear, Kate, is there is a very long road ahead to determine exactly how to deter future Russian aggression. There were a lot of positive noises coming out of the White House meeting yesterday. It is not nothing at all that the U.S. is now openly embracing the idea of being somehow involved in these security guarantees, although we don't know exactly how as of yet. This is something that European leaders have been pushing for all along. So listen to the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, talking about this in a video he posted today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEIR STARMER, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: ... a breakthrough when it comes to security guarantees with now the coalition of the willing countries, that's the 30 or so countries that we've been coordinating for some months on security guarantees, now working with the U.S. at pace to work up those security guarantees. These guarantees will ensure that if there is a peace, if there is a deal, then we hold to it and there isn't further conflict.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So what do we mean by security guarantees? Well, it could be a number of different things. The French President Emmanuel Macron coming out of the White House yesterday talking about, you know, no limits on Ukraine's armed forces.

Russia of course has demanded in the past that there should be limits on the size of Ukraine's army, which is now the second biggest in Europe, after Russia's. He talked about reassurance forces in the land, air and sea. There are certain countries, for example the U.K., that have already said they might be willing to put boots on the ground, and President Trump didn't explicitly rule out U.S. peacekeepers being involved in the Oval Office meeting yesterday, though he was pretty vague about that.

So the work continues. There was also a European Council meeting this morning, EU heads of state, another very important frenzy day of diplomacy here in Europe -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Sure does seem it. Clare, thank you so much for following it for us -- John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now is Congressman Mike Quigley from Illinois, a Democrat and the co-chair of the Congressional Ukraine Caucus. Congressman, thank you so much for being with us. The news we heard just a few minutes ago, the Kremlin, you know, Sergey Lavrov, really a senior Kremlin official, refusing to commit to the bilateral meeting between Vladimir Putin and President Zelenskyy.

What does that refusal, at least as of now, what does that tell you?

REP. MIKE QUIGLEY (D-IL), CO-CHAIR, CONGRESSIONAL UKRAINE CAUCUS: Look, it tells me that the Chancellor of Germany was right. Unless there's a ceasefire forced upon Putin, there's not going to be any other meetings. And if there are meetings, what will they actually contribute?

The fact of the matter is, they're missing the point here. Putin understands strength, not talks, not repercussions put off and put off concessions made before negotiations begin. We're honestly seeing the beginning of a new era, I guess you'd call it the Trump doctrine.

[08:10:00]

The U.S. will be tough until it's not. And we will reward invaders of a sovereign democratic country with land. And we won't hold that person responsible for the war crimes.

He doesn't understand weakness. He understands strength, and we're not even using the assets we have toward that end.

BERMAN: You did hear the British Prime Minister call it, excuse me, call it a breakthrough in terms of the discussions on security guarantees. Do you think security guarantees after some kind of a deal would provide Ukraine with some of the some of the safety that they feel like they need?

QUIGLEY: I guess I wouldn't blame Ukraine to never trust this unless it means NATO, right? They go back to Budapest. We're reminding ourselves that Putin has never kept a promise in Eastern Europe, and he never will.

To them, I guess I understand the Ukrainians to believe that here we are going to reward Putin for this, his land acquisitions, and we'll probably see Putin rebuild his army, rebuild his economy, wait another year or two, then go and finish the job.

If anything, Ukraine has earned the right to be in NATO. They have fought on the front lines of democracy.

All the reasons we fought the Second World War and formed the United Nations, we're now saying, gee, I hope he shows up, and gee, maybe we can get these concessions, and maybe we can get guarantees.

I was on your program at the start of the war. We were asked, what would constitute victory for Ukraine?

It had to do with rebuilding Ukraine, getting their territory back, holding Putin accountable, and security guarantees, meaning NATO. Maybe we get one out of those four. No one can call that a victory. It's really appeasement. We want peace, not the worst kind of appeasement.

BERMAN: Again, as of now, entrance into NATO, not on the table. As of now, an immediate ceasefire doesn't seem to be on the table. So the question becomes, what can they get?

And I guess what I'm asking you is, how much U.S. involvement would you support in some of these security guarantees?

QUIGLEY: Look, I go back to pressure Putin to that point. We have to use our assets. The first thing we have to do is seize the frozen Russian assets that are in Europe, 300 billion, five to eight roughly in the United States, and use that to help Ukraine defend itself.

And we have to put the sanctions in place, which, by the way, Republicans and Democrats solidly agree on. It's rare that we see that happen. If you want something like guarantees and you want a uniformity there, it has to come with strength.

Here I am, the liberal Democrat from Chicago, but, you know, the lessons from 1939 are coming back. The voices of '39 are coming back, weak and strong. Chamberlain coming back saying, you know, some sort of land swap, some sort of appeasement gives us peace in our time.

That's not what Hitler understood. It's not what Putin understands. I truly want peace.

But if you go at it begging and pleading a brutal murderer, it's not going to work. I was in an occupied -- formerly occupied area, and we learned the horrors. Two hundred members of a village there kept in a small basement for the duration.

And as I left through an interpreter, a woman said, if you don't help us, the Russians will be back. That's true in Ukraine. And frankly, it'll be true in all of Eastern Europe.

This is a strategic and moral imperative.

BERMAN: Congressman Mike Quigley from Illinois, we appreciate your time this morning. Thank you very much -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Ahead for us. Threats of deadly rip currents and destructive waves. The danger Hurricane Erin is posing to the East Coast as it churns north in the Atlantic. We've got an update for you.

And a surprising -- a surprise new appointment at the FBI. What we know about President Trump's new pick to lead the agency.

And we're going to show you live pictures right there. Yes, that is a historic church currently being wheeled away. The entire church being moved from one side of town to another.

[08:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: We have a new update on Hurricane Erin. The large Category 3 storm is not expected to make landfall. It is expected to spark life- threatening rip currents, towering waves, and storm surges up and down the East Coast. It prompted evacuations in North Carolina's outer banks.

Forecasters are now watching another system as well, right on the heels of Erin, saying that that one could become a named storm in the next seven days -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel have named a new co-deputy director of the FBI. If you were thinking, I've never heard of that before, you are not alone. It hasn't been a thing before, but it now appears to be a solution to the rift between the current deputy director of the FBI, Dan Bongino, and the rest of the Trump administration.

[08:20:00]

Bongino, you remember, was the only Trump insider to break from his colleagues over the decision to not release the Jeffrey Epstein files. He was reportedly so angry he even considered resigning over it. Now he will be sharing his job with the attorney general of Missouri, Andrew Bailey.

Both Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche were effusive with their praise of Bailey being named to this post, and both of them stating how thrilled they are that he's joining the team. Bongino, for his part, a bit more subdued, posting a simple welcome with three American flag emojis.

Joining me right now is CNN's Senior Law Enforcement Analyst and former Deputy Director of the FBI, Andrew McCabe.

OK, what do you think of this? What impact -- how is this going to impact the organization and the job that you've done?

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Yes, Kate, well, I think first of all, and maybe most importantly, this is and will be seen by the workforce as yet another massive step in the continuing politicization of the FBI, right? And probably the last thing that the organization needs at this point is another leader who comes to the job not as an experienced federal law enforcement official, not someone with any insider knowledge or experience of the FBI, understanding its ways, its language, its authorities, its massive workforce, the enormous scope of its mission, none of that. This person brings to the job the fact that he is a political warrior, somebody who's proved his mettle to Donald Trump.

In an era when the organization is already being pulled away from its traditional duties, its traditional responsibilities to basically chase political policy statements like immigration and a show of force in D.C., I think this will be seen as a confusing and somewhat dispiriting addition to the team.

BOLDUAN: It's also entirely not clear how the job is broken up into two. I mean, you know the job. You did it for many years.

How do you break the job into two people?

MCCABE: There were many days when I wish I could have had two or three other people of me to do the job because it is so big. The scope is so enormous. The responsibility is so great.

But the problem with doing that is the deputy director is really the court of last resort for most major operational and strategic decisions. And that's super important in a, you know, paramilitary organization like the FBI. Problems, challenges bubble up to be decided by senior leaders. And only the biggest, most challenging ones get to the deputy director.

But ultimately, the deputy director is responsible for making those decisions, sending the orders forth, and getting people to accomplish the mission. The problem when there's two deputy directors, you don't have that final voice, that final decision-making ability.

So by definition means more of these issues will bleed their way forward to the director. And that's hard. It's hard to get the director's attention on these things.

Director has many other responsibilities that that person needs to be focused on. And really, the deputy directors are responsible for protecting the director, for insulating that person from a lot of these day-to-day decisions. So it's hard to see how having two deputy directors is really going to work in that respect.

BOLDUAN: Adding another layer for sure. One way that it's been seen is, is this a way, it appears or could be, is this a way of showing Dan Bongino the door, like getting him to leave? If that is what this is, it seems a multi-step process for a problem that could be fixed with one step.

Like, why not just ask Dan Bongino to resign if the fit's not working? Again, that is if this is, you know, working towards ushering him to the door. Is that something unique to, I don't know, FBI structure that would make this step make sense?

MCCABE: Not at all. None of this is unique to the FBI. But I do believe it is unique and maybe even typical for this administration.

So if Dan Bongino desires to leave or if his bosses want him to leave, yes, I think bringing in another deputy director is one way of kind of getting through that transition. And importantly, it's a way of doing it without actually having to ask for his resignation and do it publicly, which seems to be something that this administration is loathe to do with high-level leadership positions. They seem to see that as like admitting some sort of mistake or defeat. They don't like the press coverage of things like that.

So it may in fact be that this is a way of kind of moving through a period of transition that results with Dan Bongino leaving. And he's been pretty clear that he's not crazy about the job. It's a pretty tough job. It's one that really has a pretty significant impact on your life. But we'll see.

[08:25:00]

You know, I'm still stunned that when the conflict came up between Bongino and Bondi, Pam Bondi didn't just demand his resignation right there and then.

I think that's the way this would have been handled in any other administration, Republican or Democrat. But clearly, that's not the way they're doing things today.

BOLDUAN: Not today. Andrew McCabe, it's good to see you. Thank you so much.

Coming up for us, President Donald Trump vowing to, quote, lead a movement to get rid of mail-in ballots for the entire country out of midterm elections as he continues to falsely claim that this form of voting is corrupt. Can he actually do that? We will see.

And a food review turns dangerous when the driver of an SUV plows into a restaurant. Yes, hitting two influencers literally mid-bite, how they are now doing this morning.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: President Trump announced yesterday that he's drafting an executive order aimed at banning mail-in ballots.

[08:30:00]