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Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) is Interviewed about the Bolton Home Search; GOP States Send Troops to D.C.; Questions about New Blood Pressure Guidelines Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired August 22, 2025 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00]

JULIETTE KAYYEM, SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Came in. And so, he is someone who's been the focus of potential death threats, as well as the ire of this administration.

This is -- you've got to put these things in the totality of circumstances. This is not a single indictment. This is in the world in which we live in, which is the use of these investigations to -- to intimidate, to bring speculation around people who criticize Donald Trump. I do not know the nature of the claims, nor does anyone else, but I am, from a national security perspective, going from the position of -- of skepticism. And I don't think there's anything wrong with that given what we know Donald Trump has -- has said about John Bolton in the past.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And again, we don't know what is being searched for in this house exactly, except that it's a national security operation.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Right.

BERMAN: That can often, Juliette, include classified documents, possession or misuse of classified documents.

KAYYEM: Yes.

BERMAN: What do we mean -- exactly. You know, what's the -- what's the scope of that? What's legal and potentially illegal in terms of handling of classified documents for former officials? And I asked that -- I-- really with a full known sense of irony here --

KAYYEM: Right.

BERMAN: Given the investigation in the -- into President Trump on this as well.

KAYYEM: Yes. Yes. And -- and -- and I am someone who has had a post government service security clearance. We -- we are -- we must abide by the same rules regarding how we access it and distribution of those materials. Generally that involves either a specialized computer or a specialized platform in which we have to go through a whole bunch of passwords to verify that what we want -- what we are accessing is, in fact, us and protected.

Because he had been national security adviser, he would have been privy to information at such a top level, but he would not have had access to that as a private citizen. John Bolton also does a lot of travel. He has a corporate wing in which he is advising companies around national security. So, there are a lot of points of contact that he would have with classified information.

But he is under the same obligations as any of us are in terms of protecting that -- that information. And the irony, of course, as you said, is notable given the -- the case -- the previous case against Donald Trump and the information he took to Mar-a-Lago when he was a private citizen. So, we will see the nature of that.

Look, normally, if there is a suspicion that someone did something, an accident or, you know, I accessed something that I shouldn't have accessed on my personal computer, you wouldn't have the full force of the FBI come against you. You have to -- you -- you can remedy it if it's done in good -- by accident or good faith.

An example, again, because I live in this world is, I have to document my foreign travel. If I forget to do that, because for whatever reason, I can remedy it because that's just -- and (INAUDIBLE) I didn't do anything wrong, I just did something stupid. And we wouldn't normally put the FBI in a morning or overnight raid unless the accusations were either real or unless they wanted these images that we're showing today to -- to essentially intimidate others. And that's the context that we're living in.

BOLDUAN: Just getting a little bit more information from our teams on the ground. Just to continue to give you some context as we -- as this situation develops, this raid, this search of John Bolton's home was this morning and our CNN team on the ground observed FBI personnel at the former national security advisor's house. They were seen speaking to a person on the porch of the home, and at least four to six agents were seen going in. Just more of what we are bringing in on how this has unfolded and, obviously, continues to unfold.

KAYYEM: Yes.

BERMAN: Obviously, we're going to continue to get new information in. Please, stay with us. Our continuing coverage of this situation, the FBI at the home of former National Security Adviser John Bolton, coverage continues after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:38:27]

BOLDUAN: The breaking news we continue to cover this morning, the FBI conducting a court authorized search of the former National Security Advisor to Donald Trump, John Bolton's home. Few details are released. It's truly unfolding as we speak.

We're looking at live pictures right now from outside Bolton's home, but a person familiar with the matter has said that this search is done and conducted as part of a national security investigation.

Joining us right now is Democratic Senator from Delaware, Senator Chris Coons.

Senator, thanks for being here.

Very little is known. I ask this question with full knowledge of that. Your reaction to hearing that John Bolton's home has now been searched by the FBI?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Well, Kate, the timing of this is chilling. As you said in your introduction, it is court authorized and it is alleged to be related to a national security investigation. But it's important for your viewers to remember the context here. John Bolton served as National Security Advisor in the first Trump term.

After that Trump term, he wrote a book entitled "The Room Where It Happened", where he said a lot of unflattering things about Donald Trump. His lack of knowledge about national security, his repeatedly needing to be talked out of withdrawing from NATO. And in particular, and I quote, he said that President Trump practiced obstruction of justice as a way of life.

In recent days after the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska, Bolton has been publicly criticizing President Trump, saying that Putin is playing him and that he doesn't understand the risks of what he's doing in engaging with Putin.

[08:40:08]

And Trump has been firing back.

So the timing of this search of Bolton's home is particularly chilling.

BOLDUAN: And there's also, I mean, especially in light of, I mean, what I wanted to speak with you about this morning is the state or the state or stalled nature of the peace talks to bring an end to Russia's war on Ukraine. Just this morning at 7:32 a.m., John Bolton himself sent out a message on social media. I'll read it for everyone because you can really see it in quite a different light now in light of this FBI search.

Russia has not changed its goal, drag Ukraine into a new Russian Empire. Moscow has demanded that Ukraine's seed territory it's already -- it already holds and the remainder of Donetsk, which it has not -- which it has been unable to conquer. Zelenskyy will never do so.

And then Bolton writes, Meanwhile, meetings will continue because Trump wants a Nobel Peace Prize. But I don't see these talks making any progress -- Senator.

COONS: Well, I agree with Ambassador Bolton's analysis there.

There is an opportunity here for Trump to make real progress in partnership with our NATO allies and our European partners by showing that he understands that peace through strength requires strength, not weakness. His initial meeting with Putin in Alaska was alarming, but his subsequent meeting with Zelenskyy and many of our core NATO allies who support Ukraine was encouraging.

If Trump puts American strength behind real security guarantees and refuses to accept Putin's arguments that he is somehow entitled to take more Ukrainian land, it is still possible for there to be a just and lasting peace.

Look, all of us want the killing to end in Ukraine and do not want to see more young Ukrainians go to their deaths as brave patriots defending their nation. But what Trump has repeatedly failed to grasp and to say publicly is that Putin and Russia are the aggressor here.

And in case you want an update on Putin's view of this peace process, just last night, Russia again launched a withering brutal attack on civilian targets across Ukraine, including striking an American-owned manufacturing plant in western Ukraine.

So Trump is trying to get Putin and Zelenskyy to meet, and Putin in the meantime keeps punching Trump and Zelenskyy and the West in the nose every single day. This is going to require real presidential leadership, and I understand why he would be sore about former U.N. Ambassador and National Security Advisor John Bolton saying that he doesn't understand what he's doing, and he's only trying to get the prize, not produce the result.

BOLDUAN: Do you think -- one of our analysts was on saying that while we don't -- well clearly we need to learn more about this search of the former National Security Advisor's home. The way she put it is it would be naive to not look at this with a skeptical eye in terms of the timing and what the motivation would be.

Do you think that is -- do you agree with that statement?

COONS: I agree with that statement. Look, it is possible that there is some ongoing national security investigation about the retention of classified documents.

Obviously, President Trump himself kept and mishandled huge amounts of highly classified documents in his Mar-a-Lago home, and there were subsequent investigations. So it's possible that there is a legitimate basis and given that a judge had to sign off on this search warrant, we should keep an open mind. But the timing is very suspect.

I voted against Kash Patel to be the FBI director because I was concerned he would not resist pressure from President Trump to misuse the FBI for partisan political purposes. I hope and pray that's not what's going on here. But the timing of the exchanges between Bolton and Trump and the public nature of this search make this particularly suspect.

BOLDUAN: To your -- about the -- I'm going to say the stalled state of the peace negotiations, though there is still so much work being done in the area of coming together around security guarantees and what that would look like on the European side. I know that work continues in earnest.

On the BBC today, the European Union's top diplomat said that Putin achieved what he wanted from the summit in Alaska with Donald Trump, saying this.

This is what he wanted. He got such a welcoming in America, and then he also wanted the sanctions not to be put in place, which he also received.

[08:45:01]

I think right now his interest is down because he achieved what he wanted from this meeting.

Given that, do you think there is any chance that Vladimir Putin, to be quite honest, is ever going to sit down with President Zelenskyy?

COONS: Trump, excuse me -- President Putin does not accept the legitimacy of Ukraine as a country, let alone the legitimacy of President Zelenskyy as the president of Ukraine. The reason Putin came to the table was because President Trump imposed significant tariffs on India, saying that it was because they were buying Russian oil.

Senators Graham and Blumenthal have a bill that should be moving in the Senate, which I'm a co-sponsor of, along with more than 80 senators, that would empower the president to put dramatic sanctions on countries buying Russian oil and supporting Russia's war machine. It is important to impose more costs on Putin. He is not going to stop until we stop him.

And the Ukrainians know that they have support across Europe. At the most recent NATO summit, our NATO allies stepped up and committed to 5 percent of their GDP for defense and to buying billions in U.S. weaponry to transfer to Ukraine. That was a significant positive step forward.

Now what we need is presidential leadership to work in partnership with Congress to put more pressure on Putin. Otherwise, there's no reason for him to come to the table. His goal is to conquer Ukraine.

And he is gradually, slowly, brutally, purposefully murdering Ukrainians and making progress on the Eastern Front. We should not let him do so.

BOLDUAN: And it should be noted, as leaders were arriving to the White House for the summit, Putin was attacking Ukraine and has every day since this week. Nothing has changed at all since. Senator Coons, thank you very much for coming on. I appreciate it very much.

And we've got much more on our breaking news. The FBI conducting a court-authorized search of John Bolton's home this morning. We've got more news coming in on this. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:54] BERMAN: All right, we're following the breaking news. This is -- these are live pictures from Bethesda, Maryland, outside the home of former National Security Advisor John Bolton. There is or has been an ongoing court-authorized FBI search of Ambassador Bolton's home this morning, we are told as part of a national security investigation. But we just don't have any details about what exactly that means.

There were several FBI agents seen at the home over the last several hours. Again, we are gathering as much information as we can. We will update you as soon as it comes in.

In the meantime, we've got new CNN reporting this morning. Republican governors are boosting President Trump's crackdown in Washington, D.C., by sending National Guard troops. But FBI data shows that a number of cities in the states that -- where the troops are being sent from had higher crime rates than the nation's capital.

Let's get right to CNN's Marshall Cohen in Washington to look at this data.

Marshall.

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: John, good morning.

You're right, there's been a lot of talk and a lot of spin, but the numbers don't lie. So, we looked at the FBI crime statistics from last year, the most recent year on record, to figure out what is going on.

All right, we're coming to you live from Washington, D.C. There are 2,000 National Guard troops here in this city. Half of them come from the D.C. National Guard. But the other half come from these six states that have Republican governors that are sending their troops here.

Ohio, West Virginia, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. And as you mentioned, there are cities, there are ten cities in these states that have a higher violent crime rate than D.C.

Let me break them down for you. Cleveland, Ohio, Toledo, Ohio, Memphis, that's number one in the country last year for violent crime. Nashville, Tennessee. Charleston, which is the capital of West Virginia. And then down here, two cities in Louisiana, Shreveport and Lafayette. By the way, I should point out, Shreveport, that's the home district of House Speaker Mike Johnson.

But it gets worse. John, look at this. The murder rate last year in Washington, D.C., 27 homicides per 100,000 residents. I'm not saying that's good, but it's better than this. Last year, Jackson, Mississippi, 77 homicides per 100,000. And this is the -- why the critics, the Democratic lawmakers, the social justice groups, the criminal justice groups say that this is just one big pretext, that this is more performance art. It's not actually public safety. That's the criticism.

Here's the pushback. We reached out to all of the governors in those six Republican states. Ohio said, look, this is business as usual. President Trump asked for our help. When the president asked for help, we deliver. And they pointed out that they sent troops to protect President Biden's inauguration. They've helped out other Democratic governors and mayors. They said this is not specific to Trump.

And then down in Mississippi, John, they said it was utterly "ridiculous" to suggest that they can't do two things at once. They can help the president here in D.C., while also cracking down on crime at home. And they would point out that they think the numbers are a lot better this year in Jackson.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, and it's interesting. I heard from Congressman Tim Burchett of Tennessee, who made the claim, in his own state, where the crime rates are very high in Memphis or Nashville, what he was saying, oh, they're Democrat run cities. So, you see the partisanship insults being flown this way and that.

But it is very interesting to see that data there. Really well laid out.

Marshall Cohen, thank you very much for that.

Again, we're following the breaking news. The FBI searching the home of former National Security Advisor John Bolton. New information coming in. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:58:15]

BOLDUAN: So, there are new guidelines from the American Heart Association and the American College of Cardiology that are changing how doctors approach prevention and treatment of high blood pressure. So, what are the real risks of this disease? And how do you know if it is time to make some changes? Sanjay told us about this earlier this week. He is back to answer your questions on it.

So, Sanjay, let -- let's jump right in because the questions are great, as always, from all of our viewers.

Cherie McCormick in Texas asked, "is there any way to lower blood pressure without medication?"

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Absolutely is the answer. And for a lot of people, that's going to be the answer. Three to six months you should try lifestyle changes. The obvious things apply here. You -- you know, if you exercise, 30 minutes of aerobic exercise a day, basically you're creating a stronger heart. A stronger heart requires less effort to push the blood throughout your body. That lowers blood pressure.

Lower weight. If you lower a kilogram of weight, for example, that's going to give you about a point of blood pressure reduction as well.

Diet's probably the area where you can have the biggest impact. And I think for most people it's going to be obvious changes, lower fat diet, more fruits and vegetables. But also something interesting that they talked about in the guidelines, Kate, substituting potassium chloride instead of sodium chloride. Sodium chloride is salt. Use potassium instead, which I - I thought was really interesting. It can give you sort of the same flavorings.

But also, Kate, if you are taking in potassium, it can help your body excrete sodium. So, it's sort of a -- a double benefit. You get the same, you know, taste as the sodium chloride for a lot of people, but you can also help lose sodium, and that can lower your blood pressure.

So, lots of things you can do successfully to lower blood pressure before needing medications.

[09:00:00]

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

James Olean (ph) from New York is asking, Sanjay, "how often should we be checking our blood pressure? And what do you think -- what is the best method to get the best -- the most accurate.