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Karoline Leavitt Stepping Down As White House Press Secretary; Bob Iger, Josh Kushner To Buy L.A. Lakers For $12.5 Billion; Ukraine's Leader On Crisis Caused By Lack Of Missile Interceptors. Aired 7:30-8a ET
Aired August 13, 2026 - 07:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[07:30:00]
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: The White House is looking for a new press secretary this morning. President Trump announcing that Karoline Leavitt will step down from the role at the end of the month to spend more time with her family. The president called the 28-year-old one of his most trusted aides. She's held the high-profile position since the start of Trump's second term, and her departure is a major shakeup for the White House just 82 days before the midterms and as the president is struggling with low approval ratings, the ongoing Iran war, and high gas prices.
Joining me now is Washington bureau chief for The Atlanta Journal- Constitution, Tia Mitchell. It's good to be with you here in person.
She's going to step down from her role as press secretary at the end of this month, saying that basically, look, I'm going to spend time with my young children. We remember she had a baby and she was back in the job within, I think, a month of having her child.
Give us some sense though of what this means at this time, right now, because this is a person that no matter what the president said or did, she would defend him vigorously.
TIA MITCHELL, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, THE ATLANTA JOURNAL- CONSTITUTION: Yeah. It is a big loss for President Trump because she was someone who communicated his agenda and his strategy most directly with the media. She was a very trusted aide. She is a very trusted aide of the president and so it will be hard to replace her.
Of course, her style and, you know, I think there's a lot of concern -- is who now will step into that role and what will his or her relationship be with the media. But I think it also leads to questions a) about timing, which we might never get the true answer --
SIDNER: Yeah.
MITCHELL: -- as to everything that fueled her decision.
SIDNER: Yeah.
MITCHELL: But also the ongoing conversation about mothers in the workplace and the particular pressure, especially mothers of young children. It's tough to balance both.
SIDNER: Absolutely. And mothers around the country, no matter what job they're in, have to deal with this difficult balancing act and they're never able to exactly balance it. It's really, really difficult.
I want to ask about the number of women that have actually left this administration. I mean, you've got -- let's see, the homeland secretary Kristi Noem pushed out. Attorney General Pam Bondi, same thing. The labor secretary, she left. And now you've got Leavitt. That's quite a few women in senior positions that have either been pushed out or have resigned.
MITCHELL: Yeah. And I do -- again, I think that each of these women probably has her own reasons and the internal frustrations or pressures that again we might hear it in a memoir years from now --
SIDNER: Right.
MITCHELL: -- or we might not ever get the truth. But I do think that it's going to be an -- none of their reasons are going to be the same. That being said, working in the Trump White House is difficult, right? Working -- the balancing act, again, because Trump prioritizes loyalty over everything. He wants blind absolute loyalty, and the minute you push back you risk that relationship. We see it with U.S. Attorney Pirro --
SIDNER: Right.
MITCHELL: -- who could be the next woman --
SIDNER: Right.
MITCHELL: -- you know, to fall out of favor and be pushed out.
So I do think, again, not just women but men as well find that difficult to balance sometimes and then they sometimes are getting forced out or make their own decision that they're going to kind of, you know, step off the merry-go-round.
But again, we don't know. You know, Leavitt, right now, is just saying it's about having a young family --
SIDNER: Right.
MITCHELL: -- and wanting more time with her family. But I wonder if there are other factors, like with any other -- again, anyone --
SIDNER: Right.
MITCHELL: -- that leaves their job, there are a lot of decisions that might fuel that.
SIDNER: Tia Mitchell, it is good to see you in person. Thank you so much for being here. I appreciate it.
MITCHELL: Thank you. SIDNER: All right, Erica.
ERICA HILL, CNN ANCHOR: A tense confrontation caught on camera is raising new questions about the tactics used by ICE agents. Cellphone video shows an officer pointing a gun at a driver in Virginia. The agent accuses Carolina Molina of trying to run over agents, which she says is a lie.
Moments before that gun was pulled, Molina said she witnessed agents handcuffing two men who she described as Latino men. Her dashcam video shows her shouting insults at the agents prior to an ICE vehicle appearing to block her car. All this transpiring before that gun was pulled.
Now, Molina was not arrested. DHS, however, says she could still face prosecution for "weaponizing her vehicle."
CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem joins me now.
Juliette, first, let's look at -- in terms of this video, right? So we have her cellphone video that she has released. Also, her dashcam video that she released publicly.
Based on what you see when you watch these videos, how do you read this situation?
JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST, AUTHOR, "EARLY WARNING" SUBSTACK (via Webex by Cisco): Well, if I was -- honestly, if I was living on Mars, I would see an escalated situation that then gets de-escalated.
[07:35:00]
But I -- you know, we've got a year-plus of this kind of behavior by ICE so we know that ICE often uses this "you tried to run me over with your car" excuse to escalate an interaction, in this case with an American citizen who was passing information off to immigration lawyers about how she might be able to assist.
So the totality of sort of what we've known is ICE doesn't like being yelled at. I mean, she admits I don't like ICE. She yelled some expletives at them. It's not a big deal. We -- this is what -- law enforcement should be used to this. This is what they're trained about.
And then they escalate, basically accusing her of essentially trying to kill them, which would then justify the kind of use of force that they're threatening against her. I think but for the video camera they then walk away. Totally unnecessary, totally terrifying, and totally unprofessional on ICE's part.
And I notice that DHS's spokesperson is also going after the driver rather than, you know, why is this happening on Virginia streets.
HILL: So it's interesting. You said their training. You used the word "training." What do you see in that that would match what you know, right, certainly from your time in DHS but even in this space, that would match training, which as I understand it is supposed to be about de-escalating a situation?
KAYYEM: Right. Preservation of life is number one, as any law enforcement agency knows that has adequate training, which is you're intended to de-escalate. There is no -- at no point during this what we see on video is she threatening the car, is she doing anything that's violent.
She yelled some swear words at them. And people, you know, might say well, you know, Americans have to behave. These are ICE agents. These are federal law enforcement agencies. It is America. I -- you know, we spent four years of the Biden administration having his political detractors yell at him nasty words. I don't -- I'm not justifying and I don't think it's very good but nonetheless it's not a reason to put a gun in an American citizen's face.
She has nowhere to go except for to move the car, which then they would have used as a justification to maybe even escalate.
These -- you know, look, they're putting thousands of ICE agents on the street. We have no idea what their training is like. We know it's fewer.
And I know, like, it has sort of gotten off the headlines of what's happening with ICE because the former Secretary Noem -- you know, she was -- she was so performative, so silly. You know, she would deck out and go out and, you know, carry guns and stuff.
Mullin -- Secretary Mullin is like this stealth Steve Miller. And the data is now showing that the deportations in July -- 46 -- detentions and deportations -- 46,000 people in one month. That's higher than any other month in Trump's second term.
So these very aggressive deportation and detention efforts in the homeland are ongoing. It's just Mullin is -- you know, doesn't have the same sort of performative aspects that made Noem such a lightning rod.
HILL: Juliette, always good to talk to you. Thank you -- Sara.
SIDNER: All right. Thank you so much, Erica.
This morning a civil rights complaint filed and growing calls for accountability after dash camera video shows an Arkansas state trooper slamming a woman to the ground and punching her in the face. She's 18 years old. Her name's Alisa Hackett.
She was first pulled over for speeding and police say she was driving with her hazard lights on. And according to the incident report, trooper -- the trooper says she then moved to arrest her for a bottle of liquor in front -- in the front passenger seat after learning she's already gotten a warning for an open container days earlier by another officer.
Suddenly, there was an escalation when Hackett questions why she's being arrested and asked to call her mother. The trooper claims she ignored his commands. This might be hard for you to watch. It is really a quick escalation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ALISA HACKETT, ASSAULTED BY ARKANSAS STATE TROOPER: (INAUDIBLE) is illegal.
ARKANSAS STATE TROOPER: Turn around! Turn around! (Punches Hackett in the face).
HACKETT: (Screaming).
ARKANSAS STATE TROOPER: Turn around! Turn around!
HACKETT: You cannot punch me. (Crying).
ARKANSAS STATE TROOPER: Turn around.
HACKETT: I need to call my momma.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: Now, this incident report -- the trooper's incident report says that he struck Hackett with a closed fist to "gain compliance." Arkansas State Police tell CNN they are conducting an internal review into the use of force.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump has taken up this case. He is representing Hackett.
Just let's start with this. What is Alisa Hackett saying? Because when you watch the video, I am curious what you see as a person who has seen multitudes of these videos over your time defending these cases.
BEN CRUMP, CIVIL RIGHTS ATTORNEY: Well, Sara Sidner, thank God we have the video, but we also have the audio of the interaction with them. And even more compelling we have the audio when he called to some other person with the state trooper -- maybe a supervisor -- and they seemed to conspire once he says that oh, she had an attitude.
[07:40:05]
The traffic stop was over. And clearly, what we see as a violation of U.S. v. Rodriguez, the landmark Supreme Court case that said once a stop is over you can't extend the stop unless you have a reasonable, articulable suspicion of a new crime.
He said in the audio there was no new crime. He was going to tune her up. And then you see him toss -- slam her to the ground. She says, "What did I do?" And obviously, his answer is a closed fist to the face. That is disturbing on every level.
SIDNER: Give us some sense of what your demands are and what Alisa Hackett is asking for here. CRUMP: Well, she's asking for her constitutional rights to be protected like any other citizen. I mean, you can't just be the judge, the jury, and the executioner right there on the side of the road because you say you don't like my attitude. I mean, if you cannot do a traffic stop with an 18-year-old teenage girl without tossing her -- slamming her to the ground, cursing her, and punching her in the face, then maybe you shouldn't have a badge.
SIDNER: When you look at this particular video what do you see? Do you see the escalation that they're talking about? Do you see the noncompliance that the officers say well, she was not compliant and so we were making her comply?
CRUMP: Well, you clearly see a disturbing interaction where an officer engages in excessive, excessive force of a small 18-year-old woman who is saying let me call my mother. I mean -- and that's what's so heartbreaking as a parent. As a girl dad, I mean, you just -- your skin curls up when you say hold on, she's asking to call her mother. She's not posing a threat. She's not having you in fear of your life. But yet, you're going to punch her in the face? This is a young girl.
And so they need to definitely look at their policies with not only him but also with the officer -- trooper he was talking to. And people, like her family, are calling for his termination because as Maya Angelou said, when you show who you are, believe them the first time. And if they're not going to hold him and discipline him, then they condone it. And apparently, that must be OK to do young, Black women.
SIDNER: He is on -- he is being investigated but he, according to reporter Ryan Young yesterday, he said look, he is still though on the streets. They are doing this investigation, but he is still acting as police officer.
What do -- what do you and she think of this?
CRUMP: Well, it's troubling because you can do this on video and audio. As to why you're doing it, Sara, we don't have to speculate why he did it. He said I'm going to give her a tune-up because I didn't like her attitude. I mean, this is about police ego and then excessive force. And then whether we as a nation are going to become a police state. Are we going to have rule of law? And the law is clear by the United States Supreme Court on this issue.
And that's why we're going to have litigation because if they're not going to do anything, we have to say you cannot do this to our children and think that we're going to be well-behaved victims.
SIDNER: I do want to ask you about another case -- a very high-profile case that has really grabbed America's attention, and that is the case of Nolan Wells.
We have now heard from an attorney for some of the young men that were on that very boat -- and there's the picture there -- with him before he was found dead. And here is what they said, and I just wanted to get you to respond to it because I know you have been -- you are meeting with the family in just a bit here and will be again speaking with them and having them talk to the press.
Here is what the attorneys for those boys said. They said, "We are proud to stand with and fight for these three completely innocent young men. We will be focused solely on the truth, which is that these innocent young men had nothing whatsoever to do with the tragic death of Nolan Wells."
CRUMP: We have said from the very beginning we're on a ferocious search for the truth, Sara Sidner. So if their objective is to get to the truth, then I guess we have the same objective. All we want is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth because an 18-year- old Black teenager went out on a boat at Horn Island. Everybody came back. Two days later his body was washed up on the shore dead.
[07:45:00]
And from that day to this one his mother, his father, his family, the community, and the whole country has been saying what happened to Nolan Wells?
SIDNER: There are a lot of questions.
I do want to lastly ask you -- we are hearing that there is potentially a move to try and take this to a grand jury. Have you heard that?
CRUMP: The district attorney has said that she is going to have this matter go before a grand jury and we anticipate that's going to happen hopefully sooner rather than later.
SIDNER: It is good to see you, Benjamin Crump. I have been talking to you for years and years and years, and we will be keeping an eye on both of these cases and talking to you soon. Appreciate it.
CRUMP: Thank you so much, Sara.
SIDNER: Thank you. I appreciate you.
All right, Erica.
HILL: Well, still to come here, two women and a child found deep in the wilderness after being lost for days. We have new details for you this morning about their rescue.
And a new plea to the United States from Ukraine's president. Sell Ukraine Patriot interceptors and "we will destroy all the Russian's ballistic missiles." That new CNN reporting is next.
(COMMERCIAL)
[07:50:33]
SIDNER: Dodgers superstar Freddie Freeman says he's alright after taking a scary fall last night.
CNN's Andy Scholes is with me. ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yeah.
SIDNER: You keep bringing these stories. You've got a guy jumping off and landing into a hole.
SCHOLES: Yeah.
SIDNER: Now you've got this. What's going on?
SCHOLES: Athletes falling in weird spots lately, Sara. But, you know, you know when players are tracking foul balls they go and they get up right against the dugout rail, lean over, and make the catch?
SIDNER: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
SCHOLES: Now we see it happen all the time --
SIDNER: Yeah.
SCHOLES: -- you know. But when the ball is about to land right where the stairs are --
SIDNER: Oh god.
SCHOLES: -- and nothing to lean on.
SIDNER: Oh no.
SCHOLES: Freddie Freeman -- he was tracking a foul ball in the top of the eighth inning --
SIDNER: Oh.
SCHOLES: -- last night there at Dodger Stadium against the Royals. And just as he's about to make the catch he's going to go right down the stairs --
SIDNER: No! No!
SCHOLES: -- yeah, of the Royals dugout. He takes a big old tumble. The players all rushed over to try to help him.
SIDNER: Oh! Oh!
SCHOLES: Yeah, look at that. That's a bad fall.
Freeman eventually able to get to his feet. He actually stayed in the game to finish the top of the eighth but then he was pinch hit for in the ninth.
The Dodgers ended up winning 4-2.
And here is Freeman afterwards on how he's feeling.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FREDDIE FREEMAN, FIRST BASEMAN, LOS ANGELES DODGERS: I didn't hit my head so that was the key part there. I am sore. Kneecaps are sore, shoulder's sore, hand's sore, wrist sore. I mean, I fell. So I'm in good spirits. I've already cold tubbed. I've done everything I needed to do. We'll just see how this -- see how I feel when I wake up tomorrow. But right now I'm just sore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Yeah. Freeman said not sure if he's going to be able to play tonight as the Dodgers open a huge four-game series against the Brewers.
All right. Meanwhile in Chicago, no one in baseball hotter than Alex Bregman right now. The Cubs' third baseman homering in the fifth, the sixth, and the eighth last night.
SIDNER: (INAUDIBLE).
SCHOLES: Bregman finished three for three and seven RBIs. It was his first three-run -- three home run game of this career. Bregman has the most hits in baseball over the last two weeks.
The Cubs beat the Nationals in that one by a mile, 12-6.
All right. The NFL preseason really kicks off tonight with six games on the schedule. The Chiefs -- they play Saturday against the Rams. And Travis Kelce -- he's back for his 13th season. And for the first time yesterday, he talked about his wedding to Taylor Swift.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRAVIS KELCE, TIGHT END, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: The wedding was the best night of my life, and I appreciate everybody who came out and celebrated and, you know, had fun with us. And that's about all I really got from that night. It's a -- it was a -- it was a crazy night. It was -- it was full of a lot of celebration. But it's football, baby.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SCHOLES: Yeah, Sara. I was talking to my wife about Travis Kelce yesterday and she's like "Oh, what did he say?" He said oh well, you know, his wedding night was the best night of his life. And my wife said, "What was the best night of your life?" And I was like, "Oh, same, same -- same thing."
SIDNER: Good answer. Good answer.
SCHOLES: It's the only answer, yeah.
SIDNER: It is literally the only answer.
I'm really -- I'm happy for Travis Kelce --
SCHOLES: Yeah. SIDNER: -- but the Rams are about to whoop their tail.
SCHOLES: Oh, we'll see.
SIDNER: Just so you know.
SCHOLES: Yeah, we'll see, we'll see.
SIDNER: Andy Scholes, it's a pleasure.
SCHOLES: All right.
SIDNER: Good to see you -- Erica.
HILL: Well, in other sports news let's talk a little basketball, shall we? The Lakers could have new owners -- former Disney CEO Bob Iger and venture capitalist Josh Kushner who, of course, is the brother of Jared Kushern, the president's son-in-law. The pair shelling out a record $12.5 billion to buy the team. That would make this the most expensive sale of a professional sports franchise in history.
CNN senior reporter Matt Egan joins me now with more. There are questions about the people involved. There's also questions about the timing. Wasn't it less than a year ago that the Lakers were sold?
MATT EGAN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah, that's right, Erica. Look, this is quite the plot twist, right -- one that's appropriate for Hollywood, and it's rocking the sports world.
As you mentioned, the Los Angeles Lakers, one of the preeminent trophy assets in all of sports, are once again being sold. Josh Kushner, the venture capitalist, and former Disney CEO Bob Iger -- those are the buyers. And yes, a source confirms to CNN that they're paying $12.5 billion, an all-time record here. Now, this deal still has to be approved the Board of Governors at the NBA.
But yes, the surprise here is the timing because it was just last June that billionaire Mark Walter bought the Lakers for a valuation of $10 billion. It was only last fall that the NBA approved this deal. Now the Lakers are changing hands again. This is really unusual.
Sports franchises -- they're typically owned by the same group --
HILL: Uh-huh.
EGAN: -- for many years -- sometimes even decades. And here you have the Lakers changing hands again.
One sport banker that I'm in touch with was absolutely shocked by this. He said no one flips a premiere sports franchise in less than a year. He said I've never seen anything like this.
[07:55:00]
Now a person familiar with the matter told me that this deal did come together very quickly -- HILL: Yeah.
EGAN: -- just in the last few days, and that it was Kushner and Iger that reached out to the Lakers with an offer here.
Now a little bit more on the money -- $12.5 billion -- some context. That's more than some notable public companies are worth.
HILL: Yeah.
EGAN: In fact, it's more than Macy's, Harley-Davidson, and JetBlue are worth combined.
This is a look at some of the most expensive team sales in history. You can see the Lakers were already at the top just last year at $10 billion.
Look, I'm not shocked here that we're seeing all-time highs because there is -- there's just so few sports teams out there --
HILL: Yeah.
EGAN: -- and everyone wants to own a piece. But the surprise here is that the Lakers are once again being sold.
HILL: And being sold less than a year later for $2.5 billion more, and question about the players. There's a lot happening.
All right, Matt. We'll continue to talk about this one -- Sara.
SIDNER: That's quite a jump there. Just a couple of billion dollars more. All right.
All right. Breaking overnight, speaking of billion, Powerball officials say a single ticket matching all six numbers won that $1 billion jackpot last night. If the winner takes a lump sum, it will be just over $450 million before taxes. It's the eighth-largest jackpot in Powerball history. Somebody is celebrating today.
All right, look at this. Three missing tubers rescued after being stranded in the woods for three days. They were on a tubing trip down a river in Michigan when their float popped and the crews found the two missing women and a 9-year-old boy deep in shoulder-high brush.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
9-YEAR-OLD BOY, LOST FOR THREE DAYS: We got lost.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE).
9-YEAR-OLD BOY: We went to the river. We went to the river, and we were on the river for hours.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh my God.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're OK though, right? UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yeah. Dude.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're going to be OK.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Holy crap, man.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER: The kids are telling everything. Oh my gosh, look at all those scratches -- oof.
Officials say they were covered in cuts and bug bites. And the child said they survived off of eating bark and flowers. Poor things.
Rescuers carried the children on their back for a half-mile to safety. The adults were hospitalized and treated for infections and, as you might imagine, dehydration -- Erica.
HILL: Woo. That is rough. Glad they found them.
Overnight, Ukraine says Russia attacked a train with over 300 passengers on board, killing the train's engineer and his assistant. Ukraine's president said this was a drone strike on civilians, and he is pleading for more air defenses.
CNN's Nick Paton Walsh is in Kyiv. He sat down with President Zelenskyy. Nick, he was very clear in terms of, like -- in terms of what Ukraine needs right now. What more did you hear from the president?
NICK PATON WALSH, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, no mistake, this is an unprecedented crisis really most felt in the capital Kyiv here where the Patriot interceptor system has kept the threat of Russian ballistic missiles at bay for so many years of the war. That moment is now over.
And we've seen so many of the waves of Russian missiles not be intercepted here and other cities in past weeks, making July the deadliest month for civilians since April 2022 here in Ukraine simply because there's a global shortage of Patriot interceptors, partly because of the U.S. war with Iran and how many we used there.
An impassioned, startling plea here from Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and an insight really into what he has to go through every single morning just to try and beg allies for more of these vital lifesaving missiles. Here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WALSH: Are you out of interceptors now? Do you have none left?
VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: No. I will explain to you how it works. So this year we have 2 1/2 times less interceptors than we had in 2025, first. Russia has two times more ballistic missiles per month than they had before. We pay 100 percent to America. I have the package from the United
States and then my personal involvement. It doesn't work the other way. It's my personal talks, meetings, and phones -- phone calls each day with everybody. I try to exchange something to missiles.
This year I'm asking American partners to sell me five percent -- five percent of missiles. What they have in their stocks. If they sell us five percent, we will go through the winter and save people's lives. If they can sell us 10 percent, we will destroy all the Russian's ballistic missiles.
WALSH: And has that request been answered yet?
