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Trump Posts Directive on Social Media; Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D- NJ) is Interviewed a Palestinian State; Trump Expected to Announce Link to Autism; California Bans Masks on Duty; Polls on Who's Trusted on Big Issues. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired September 22, 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]

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: And it can come out of nowhere.

ANTHONY LACORAZZA, LOCAL PARTNER LIAISON, SECRET SERVICE NEW YORK FIELD OFFICE: There's always a plan. There's always multiple plans to get from -- from one point to the other. And we run those consistently. We brief them consistently. And before we even leave that site, everybody knows what each contingency plan is.

MILLER (voice over): But for the Secret Service, the secret weapon for New York City traffic is NYPD's highway patrol motorcycles.

MILLER: You want to be fluid all the time. How do the motorcycles and the outriders play into all that?

LACORAZZA: So, if you noticed, on the left-hand lane, they keep going ahead. What they're doing is shutting down as many streets as possible so we can keep going. So, to your point, we never want to be still. We never want to stop.

MILLER (voice over): The outriders are led by Lieutenant Joseph Bell.

LT. JOSEPH BELL, NYPD HIGHWAY PATROL: The individuals that are picked are picked because not only can they operate a motorcycle very efficiently, but they have a lot of experience doing high profile escorts. With them, we can address anything -- any compromise on that route.

MILLER: And who will you be escorting?

BELL: I will be on the POTUS escort.

MILLER (voice over): And protecting the president is no detail for rookies.

MILLER: How many presidents have you escorted in motorcades?

BELL: Eight.

MILLER: Eight. And how many U.N. General Assemblies have you been a part of?

BELL: Thirty-eight. Nobody does it like we do it. Nobody prepares for it like we do it. And I can say with all certainty that we are the best in the business of what we do.

MILLER (voice over): John Miller, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: A brazen new demand by the president to go after his enemies. President Trump now placing new pressure on Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate them. What could happen next?

Plus, a massive drug bust. How the U.S. helped seize literally a ton of cocaine.

And it could be a matter of life and death. The devastating funding cuts facing critical pediatric cancer research. One family discovering, in their daughter's case, if it wasn't for philanthropic donations, their daughter's rare cancer may never have been studied for a cure.

I'm Sara Sidner, with John Berman and Kate Bolduan. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, new this morning. What sounded to some like a clear and direct order, the president telling Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate his political foes very, very publicly. In a social media post addressed to the attorney general, the president says he read "30 statements and posts" claiming there is, quote, "all talk, no action" against former FBI Director James Comey, California Senator Adam Schiff and New York Attorney General Letitia James. And then he said, quote, "we can't delay any longer. It's killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice and indicted me five times over nothing. Justice must be served now." The president later told reporters they have to act fast, but he did stand by Attorney General Bondi.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Pam Bondi is doing a great job. I think Pam Bondi is going to go down as one of the best attorney generals of -- of the ages.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, with us now, CNN legal analyst Elliot Williams.

Elliot, let me play the role of devil's advocate here, OK. What's the big deal, right? I mean the president appoints the attorney general, or nominates the attorney general. It's a political appointment. Why shouldn't he be able to say, I want the attorney general to prosecute people? ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: That's a very important question,

John. And many people have that. Yes, the president appoints the attorney general. Yes, it's a political position. But there has been a long tradition in the United States of separating the work of the White House from criminal prosecutions. This goes -- certainly goes back to Watergate, when the Justice Department put guidance in -- specific guidance limiting -- restricting communications between the White House and the attorney general.

Now, there's several important reasons why. Number one is to protect prosecutions. If you have a president on the airwaves directing prosecution, you know, a defendant can go into court and say that this prosecution is not legitimate. So, you have that, number one.

Number two, just look at us globally. If other countries engaged in conduct in which a president could direct prosecutions, we would look down our nose at that kind of conduct. So, it's just, number one, who we are as Americans and, number two, explicit guidance at the Justice Department limiting that kind of behavior.

BERMAN: Yes, you just really discussed moral, legal and practical reasons why this might be inadvisable at best and something else entirely at worst.

OK, devil's advocate, yes, what about the notion, all these prosecutions, people have been throwing up obstacles in the way of these prosecutions?

WILLIAMS: Well, people throwing up obstacles in the way of prosecutions. Look, if someone has broken the law, they ought to be prosecuted for it. But we have not gotten serious indication that any of the individuals that the president is targeting, number one, have broken the law.

[09:05:09]

If they have, they can go to a grand jury and have those charges supported. But the idea that merely because the president regards a grand -- the existence of a grand left wing conspiracy to take him down, and therefore people should be prosecuted, is -- that's just simply not how prosecution works.

BERMAN: And, Elliot, as someone who's worked in the Justice Department before, in a vacuum, like take away the last, you know, ten years of our lives, where -- where things that were extraordinary have become ordinary. But if the 2012 version of you had seen this type of statement from a generic president, what would you have thought?

WILLIAMS: I would have been quite alarmed. And let me just give you a personal example from literally the 2012 me. We -- you know, I would attend weekly meetings at the White House with every legislative affairs head from every cabinet department to talk about things that were -- that were being worked on. And a lot of the other -- you know, every other cabinet department would give these long, (INAUDIBLE) explanations of what they're secretary or director was doing that month. My or our report from the Justice Department would always be the Justice Department has no report. We would simply not discuss the work of the Justice Department with -- certainly with the White House or with anyone else in the cabinet. And this is for the purpose of, number one, pushing back on, you know, any notion of the White House directing our work, but also, two, like I said, to protect the integrity of prosecutions.

And quite frankly, John, it's not just prosecutions. It's also investigations. The -- everything from the FBI to the criminal prosecutors at the State Department ought to be separate from the White House for exactly that reason so they can do their work without the stink of political influence hurting public confidence in the work of law enforcement.

BERMAN: Yes. And again, I just don't think we've ever seen anything quite as explicit as this before.

WILLIAMS: No.

BERMAN: It has huge implications.

Elliot Williams, counselor, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: And joining us right now to talk more about this is Democratic Congressman Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey.

It's good to see you.

REP. JOSH GOTTHEIMER (D-NJ): Good to see you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: What do you think happens now? I mean, do you think Pam Bondi draws a red line here, or what happens if charges are not (ph) brought against the group, Comey, Schiff and Letitia James?

GOTTHEIMER: You would hope she would. But let's be honest, that DOJ has been nothing but political since day one of this administration, and Trump is not going to stop pushing, right, until he gets everybody he wants. We saw him do it to Jimmy Kimmel last week. They're not done there either. You know, this is just a political Department of Justice, unfortunately. And they want to weaponize it.

So, yes, it's a total break with history and protocol, but it doesn't seem to be an issue that he cares about in terms of crossing any lines.

BOLDUAN: Yes, I mean, it's kind of standby to stand by and what Pam Bondi -- and what move she makes or doesn't on that one today.

Today kicks off U.N. General Assembly week in New York. And just ahead of this you have the U.K., Canada, Australia, Portugal and more to come announcing that they're going to formally recognize a Palestinian state. The point is, they say it is to pile pressure on Israel as it presses on with its campaign in Gaza.

I want to play for you the take from the Australian prime minister in making this announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY ALBANESE, AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER: This is about the world saying enough is enough. We want peace and security in the Middle East.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What's your reaction to this largely symbolic moves, if you will, from these nations, but the very big statement they are making?

GOTTHEIMER: I mean, I think its deeply uninformed and foolish of these countries to not understand actually what they're doing, which is enabling Hamas. You know, if you -- I don't know if you saw the quote already, but they already -- Hamas has already called these moves by these countries the fruits of October 7th. In other words, celebrating what they did on October 7th and said, look, it worked, right? That actually it's rewarding Hamas terrorism by doing this, by making these unilateral moves without Israel at the table, without the United States at the table.

So, you know, I don't really quite understand -- well, I guess they're doing it for personal politics, but this makes zero sense in terms of you actually want a pathway to peace, if you want a two-state solution, this is not the way to a two-state solution or to peace.

BOLDUAN: Netanyahu's response so far has been vowing that there will be no Palestinian state. And he also said this, Congressman, "the response to the latest attempt to" -- what he says is "to force a terror state upon us in the heart of our land will be given after my return from the United States." And he says, "wait for it."

What do you want to see from the United States and President Trump on this one? I mean, are you concerned of the -- this is isolating Israel in the region and in the world?

[09:10:05]

GOTTHEIMER: I think the objectives here broadly are unchanged. And I, frankly, think that Israel was isolated on October 8th, right, when they started getting blamed for hospital bombings that they had nothing to do with. You know, our objectives should remain the same, to crush terrorists who are enemies of the United States, and I'm talking about Hamas and Hezbollah and Palestinian Islamic Jihad and others, to ensure we do everything we can to get the hostages home. They're still holding, 20 hostages we believe are alive, and nearly another 20 who aren't. Many, as you know, of the living hostages are being starved by Hamas because that's what terrorists do. And then, of course, we need to do everything we can to surge humanitarian aid into the region.

And this is where the U.N. is failing miserably, in my opinion. I was at the Kerem Shalom crossing a few weeks ago, seeing the aid move from Israel, from around the world, through Israel into Gaza. And the U.N., their convoys, are getting attacked nearly every day. The U.N. has admitted, by their own statistics, that more than 85 percent of the aid that they move to Gaza, to families, to children, are not getting there. The U.N. is failing miserably because they refuse to guard the aid that they send. So, I'm calling on them, and I did this morning with a group of members, calling on them to please guard the aid, put peacekeepers with the aid so the aid can get to children. They are at blame for this, in my opinion. I saw it with my own eyes. And we need to make sure that this aid gets out.

BOLDUAN: The Senate Democratic leader, Chuck Schumer, was on with Dana yesterday, and she asked him about his continued hesitance or -- yes, hesitance, I'll say, in getting -- in backing the Democratic nominee for mayor of New York City, Zohran Mamdani. And Dana asked, "is part of your calculation" -- I mean she asked him several times in several different ways, but got down to it, saying, "is part of your calculation that if you endorse a Democratic socialist, you're worried about it damaging the party, maybe even the chances of winning back the Senate?" And Schumer repeated his refrain, which is, "I'm going to continue talking to him."

You've been outspoken about your concerns over his positions on Israel and combating anti-Semitism. What do you want to see Schumer do, and how do you answer that question that Dana posed?

GOTTHEIMER: And it's not just his failure to condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada," which, of course, calls for the killing of Jewish people, but also many of his socialist policies, right, like state-run grocery stores, his historic attack on law enforcement.

You know, listen, I -- I think he's a very impressive candidate and -- right. And -- and I'm not taking that away from -- from him. But my problem is that he's a socialist, and -- and he should be in the socialist party, not in the Democratic Party. And I don't know what Senator Schumer's perspective on this is, but I think, you know, it is -- I believe in a strong, common sense, reasonable Democratic Party that wants to get costs down and taxes down, make life more affordable for people. And that should be our focus.

You know Mr. Mamdani can, you know, if he seeks to -- to create his own -- join the socialist party or create his own party, that's fine. But we have to be very careful to make it clear what Democrats stand for. And -- and that's the difference here.

BOLDUAN: Then do you think that it's showing a lack of courage that Schumer continues to say, I'm continuing to talk to him?

GOTTHEIMER: No. I mean, I think Senator Schumer, you know, and I won't speak for him, he'll speak for himself, but, obviously, he might be struggling with what many of us are struggling with, well -- well, why won't he condemn the phrase "globalize the intifada?" Why won't he stop, you know, his -- his call -- his -- the, you know, associating with all these Democratic socialist policies, Democratic socialist policies, (INAUDIBLE) policies? You know, what's the reason for that? And maybe those are the conversations he's having. I could just speak to my concern.

You know, we need to make sure we have a Democratic Party that's for common sense issues and wants to get cost down, childcare costs down and make life more affordable for families. Get taxes down for people who are struggling. Get those energy bills down. That, to me, is what the Democratic Party should be focused on and not socialist policies. That's -- that's not part of the national Democratic Party that I'm a part of.

BOLDUAN: Congressman Josh Gottheimer, thanks for coming in.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, President Trump about to make a major announcement on what is causing autism after saying, I think we found an answer. The president is expected to link autism in children to Tylenol use during pregnancy and low levels of folate. According to the CDC data, the incidence of autism in America is on the rise. About one in every 31 children has been diagnosed with autism by age eight in 2022, up from one in every 36 children in 2020. But the president of the College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists just talked to me about this, saying it's a little reckless to put the blame on one or two specific things.

CNN medical correspondent Meg Tirrell joining us now.

What are you expecting to hear from this announcement, Meg?

MEG TIRRELL, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Sara. So, what we're expecting, and this is -- sort of came out a couple of weeks ago and then was reiterated in reports yesterday, is that the Trump administration may warn against using Tylenol during pregnancy, except perhaps in the case of very high fever, because of a potential link to autism.

[09:15:12]

They also may talk about an approved drug called leucovorin as a potential treatment for children with autism.

Now, we should note that the Department of Health and Human Services has called any of these reports speculative until they make this announcement. But this has also been an issue that has been studied for more than a decade. And we should note, Tylenol also is very widely used during pregnancy. More than half of pregnant women worldwide have reported using Tylenol during pregnancy. So, this is a widely used drug. And there's a lot of concern, not just as you pointed out, the idea that linking this as an answer to autism definitively could be reckless according to the ACOG president, but also that this will strike fear in pregnant women and perhaps stop them from using an important medication when there aren't a lot of other options. And fever during pregnancy can be dangerous.

So, from the reports we've seen, it does not appear that this is necessarily based on any new research. There has -- there have been many studies about this over the last decade or so, including one analysis of previous studies that just came out about a month ago that looked about -- at 46 studies of the use of Tylenol during pregnancy and neurodevelopmental disorders. And essentially that analysis concluded that there is "evidence consistent with an association between exposure to acetaminophen during pregnancy and offspring with Neuro Developmental Disorders, including Autism Spectrum Disorder and ADHD." But they said "observational limitations preclude definitive causation."

So, as you were talking about with the ACOG president, somebody could get a fever during pregnancy or have pain during pregnancy, use Tylenol to treat that pain. Subsequently, have a baby who later is diagnosed with autism. Does that mean that the Tylenol caused the autism or whatever caused the fever or perhaps the pain was related to the autism diagnosis. So, these questions are as yet unanswered.

We should also note that the maker of Tylenol is disputing any link between these two things, Sara.

SIDNER: And we should mention that ACOG is not changing their guidance for the use of Tylenol by pregnant women, saying it is still safe and effective as far as they know. But everyone is waiting to hear this announcement and see what is actually said.

Meg Tirrell, thank you so much for your great reporting on this.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, California pushing back. Governor Gavin Newsom signing into law new measures that could force ICE agents to drop the masks and limit where they can go. The next chapter unfolding in the battle between the Democratic governor and the president's Department of Homeland Security.

Plus, what new polling is saying about how Democrats can go about winning back working class voters ahead of the midterm elections.

And vital cancer research that's now facing very real funding cuts. Sara takes a closer look at everything that is at stake for some children fighting for their lives.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:21:53]

SIDNER: New this morning, the Trump administration is slamming a new bill signed into law by California Governor Gavin Newsom. It's called the No Secret Police Act. It bans most law enforcement officers, including federal immigration agents, from wearing masks while on duty, including during raids.

CNN's Julia Vargas is joining us now with this.

First, talk to us about the bill and the reaction to this act that has been put through by Gavin Newsom.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the reaction was almost immediate, Sara. Over the weekend we heard from Tricia McLaughlin, the assistant secretary for public affairs from DHS. The concern from DHS here being that the safety of ICE officers is at stake here with this new measure. She said, quote, "a sanctuary politician is trying to outlaw officers wearing masks to protect themselves from being doxed and targeted by known and suspected terrorist sympathizers."

This -- we've heard this before. Now, Newsom has already addressed this. He has said that as he signed that bill. He said DHS did not provide any data to back that up. But more important than the pushback from DHS is what we're hearing from the acting U.S. attorney here in central California. He's saying he's already directing the courts to not take this law into consideration. And that law enforcement agents here from the federal agencies will continue to cover their faces.

Now, what this law is actually saying is that no neck gait (ph) or ski mask, any kind of face covering, will be allowed for those federal agents. Now, state police will be exempted from it. They will also require warrants for those federal agents to go into schools and hospitals, and for parents to be notified when ICE agents are on campus.

Now, the argument from Governor Gavin Newsom here is that anyone on American soil has the right to due process, even undocumented immigrants. And he's saying that public trust from those communities and from the rest of California has eroded with those federal officers as those raids have been taking place here, Sara, and that this law is an opportunity to restore it.

Now, it is supposed to go into effect on January 1st, but the governor has already said that he is expecting that to be challenged. The key question here, Sara, is, is this just another move in this chess play between Governor Gavin Newsom and the Trump administration, or will there be real consequences? The question, how will this law be enforced?

SIDNER: That is a big question, who will enforce the law and whether it will be challenged in court.

Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so much for your reporting this morning.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: New polling shedding light on who Americans trust more and why Trump's unpopularity guarantees nothing for Democrats in the midterms.

And happening right now, Ryan Routh, the man accused of trying to assassinate then candidate Donald Trump, is set to call his first witness at his trial. He even may testify on his own behalf. Let's see what happens.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:29:14]

BOLDUAN: While President Trump's approval rating remains underwater, a new poll shows that most Americans, though, still trust Republicans over Democrats on -- and handling some merry -- merry issues -- some major issues, rather. HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Sure.

BOLDUAN: CNN's Harry Enten. Merry depends on your perspective, I guess.

ENTEN: I am not married.

BOLDUAN: You -- I said merry as in happy.

Anyway, let's talk about this. What are you seeing?

ENTEN: Yes, what are we seeing? You know, Donald Trump being underwater, Democrats and all this guarantees us we're going to fly high in the midterms. Let me tell you, this guarantees you nothing. Nothing. Because at this particular point, the Democrats are the New Orleans Saints of political parties.

What are we talking about? Trust the Dems or GOP more on the economy? Who leads on the economy? Republicans by seven. Immigration, Republicans by 13. How about crime, a big issue for Donald Trump and the Republicans. Look at that, lead by 22 points.

[09:30:03]

So, the bottom line is this, at this particular point, the ball may be on the ground, but the Democrats have not picked up the ball.