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Backlash Mounts Over Israeli Plan To Take Over Gaza City; Russia Demands Two Key Regions Of Ukraine For Ceasefire; Trump Warns Of Another Great Depression If Court Voids His Tariffs; Dems Delay Texas Redistricting Again, Escalating Standoff With GOP; Three More 9/11 Victims Identified After Nearly 24 Years; President Adds Paved Patio In Rose Garden Renovation; Group Of CDC Employees Tells Agency's Leadership They Felt Like "Sitting Ducks" During Shooting; Canyon Fire Explodes In Size, Scorching 5,300 Plus Acres; Jen Pawol Makes History As First Woman to Umpire Regular Season MLB Game; Baseball History Made as a Woman Umpires Regular Season Games; "Ecuador: The Narco Superhighway" Airs Tomorrow at 9PM ET. Aire 6-7p ET

Aired August 09, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:37]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: You're on the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean here in New York, and we begin tonight with opposition growing to Israel's plan to take control of Gaza City. That opposition from both outside and inside Israel itself, the hostage and missing families say tens of thousands of people took to the streets in Tel Aviv tonight, calling for an end to the war in Gaza and the return of all hostages.

Nearly two years since Hamas' October 7th attack, some 50 hostages still being held in Gaza, 20 of whom are believed to still be alive. Israel's Cabinet voting this week to expand the war, while every day the humanitarian situation in Gaza gets increasingly more desperate.

CNN's Matthew Chance is tonight in Tel Aviv and has this report for us -- Matthew.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are here in the center of Tel Aviv, where thousands of people have gathered to express their anger, their fury at this latest decision by the Israeli government, the Israeli military, to go into the Gaza Strip and to occupy Gaza City, the most densely populated area that remains inside Gaza.

There are a great deal of concerns here that that military operation, which is expected to take place within the next two months will jeopardize the security, the lives of the Israeli hostages still being held inside Gaza. There are 50 hostages still inside Gaza, 20 of them are still believed to be alive. And so there is a great deal of concern amongst the Israeli public about that.

There is also concern that the Israeli military is already overstretched. The military has expressed its opposition to further military action, and that opposition is reflected in the population at large. Opinion polls say 70 percent of Israelis want an end to the war right now, and an immediate deal with Hamas to get the hostages back home and for the war to end.

Every night, every Saturday night, rather, there are protests like this in Tel Aviv, but this one is particularly intense as the country stands on the brink of yet more military operations inside Gaza.

In fact, the only people in Israel who are really satisfied and happy with this decision to go into Gaza are the far-right parties on which Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli Prime Minister, depends for the survival of his fragile political coalition, and that's why there is such a lot of criticism that you hear expressed here that this latest next phase in the conflict in Gaza is motivated by politics, by his political survival, not by a necessity to secure the future of Israel.

Matthew Chance, CNN in Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Matthew, thank you.

We are also following another major story tonight, and that would be the highly anticipated meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska next Friday. Tonight, Vice President J.D. Vance is outside London discussing a route to peace between Russia and Ukraine with his European counterparts.

As we mentioned, Putin and Trump set to meet Friday as Trump tries to broker a ceasefire deal. It will be the first time in a decade Putin has set foot on U.S. soil. U.S. officials telling CNN, Putin is offering to halt the war, but only if Russia gets to keep two key parts of Ukraine, the Donbas Region and Crimea.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is rejecting that idea, saying his country will not give land to the occupier, in his words, he is also repeating calls for an immediate ceasefire.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): What is needed is not a pause in the killings, but real lasting peace, not a ceasefire sometime in the future, months from now, but immediately, President Trump told me this, and I fully support it.

The President of the United States has the leverage and the determination. Ukraine has supported all of President Trump's proposals since February. All parties supported the ceasefire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: CNN's senior White House reporter, Betsy Klein is joining us now from the White House.

Betsy, just a few days now before this summit, this meeting. What is the White House doing? BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER AND WRITER: That's right. Well, since President Trump announced that this summit would take place on Friday in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin, there has been a clear diplomatic effort to get U.S. allies on board.

[18:05:10]

There are also some very real concerns from allies and experts that doing this summit meeting with Putin is just buying him more time in this conflict. But we still don't have details on where exactly in Alaska it is going to be and most notably, when the President announced this, he did not say whether or when Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would be included in this process to get a potential ceasefire deal.

Now, Zelenskyy has been emphatic that Ukraine needs to be at the negotiating table, and he has also said that Ukraine will not cede any territory. Now, all of this comes after the President's Special Envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, met with Putin earlier this week and laid out the potential contours of a plan.

The President pressed on that yesterday. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: You're looking at territory that's been fought over for three-and-a-half years with, you know, a lot of Russians have died, a lot of Ukrainians have died.

So we are looking at that, but we are actually looking to get some back. And, some swapping. It is complicated. It is actually nothing easy. It is very complicated. But we are going to get some back. We are going to get some switched. There will be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: Now, European allies have been scrambling to get more details about what that deal would look like. They have also expressed concern about the possibility of Ukraine ceding territory, and have been advocating for Zelenskyy to be a participant in those talks.

Now, Vice President J.D. Vance convened an hours' long meeting today in England with his British counterpart, Foreign Secretary David Lammy, as well as Ukrainian and other European officials. One U.S. official characterized that meeting as having significant progress being made, but we still don't know whether there is significant buy in from U.S. allies, that's something we will be watching quite closely in the days ahead leading to Friday.

DEAN: All right, Betsy Klein at the White House, thank you so much for that reporting. And joining us now is CNN senior military analyst and former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Admiral James Stavridis. He is also a partner at the investment firm The Carlyle Group and wrote the book, "The Admiral's Bookshelf." Admiral Stavridis, thanks for being here with us. I want to start first with that Trump-Putin meeting. What do you make of this setup right now?

Trump is going to meet with President Putin even as Russia continues its nightly attacks on Ukraine.

ADM. JAMES STAVRIDIS (RET), CNN SENIOR MILITARY ANALYST: Yes, it feels kind of wrong. But at the same time, you know, Winston Churchill, most quotable man in the world, said, you know, better than war, war, war is jaw, jaw, jaw meaning talk. So I will take it. Let's get to the table. And I like it, frankly, that it is in Alaska.

This is a territory the United States purchased from Russia. To me, it feels like we are summoning Vladimir Putin to the United States. I kind of like that, to be honest with you, and let's see what comes out of it.

In terms of, shape of the deal, Jessica, I think in the end, it is going to kind of be what you see is what you get. Putin is pretty dug in militarily, expelling him from the territory he has now. I say this as a former Supreme Allied Commander, it is going to be very difficult. I think it may well be time to create an outcome that, at least temporarily, puts Russia in control of these territories. They're already there.

And as President Trump said, if something can be swapped that Russia holds, that could go back to the Ukrainians, that's good. At the end of the day, the key here is the future of Ukraine. Can they join the E.U.? Can they ultimately join NATO? I think all of that's on the table. We will learn more as the conversation goes on this next Friday.

DEAN: Certainly and as I am hearing you talk about this out loud, it sounds like you're saying that it may very well be that Russia has to keep or will end up keeping some of this land. And so what, then, of the protections, the security protections for Ukraine? Those would, I would assume, have to be quite ironclad at that point.

STAVRIDIS: They absolutely do. You're spot on and the way to do that is to tell Putin, okay, if we agree to a deal that gives you Crimea and some portion of the Donbas, here are the conditions and you're showing the map here and all this is very negotiable at this point.

[18:10:05]

The deal would be Ukraine continues to receive significant weapons from the United States and the European Union. Ukraine can participate in training exercises. The F-16 fighter aircraft that have been given to Ukraine will continue to operate. Ukraine will be a sovereign state with a clear path toward the E.U. I think all of that, in the end, is not a terrible deal.

Look, I hate it. Giving up any part of Ukraine, but the bottom line is, we say in North Florida, where I am from, sometimes you've got to be for what's going to happen anyway. Let's get the best deal we can coming out of this in a practical sense and then watch Ukraine be reconstructed and become the South Korea at the end of the Korean War in the Reconstruction. Today, South Korea, the ninth largest economy in the world.

Ukraine's future could be quite bright coming out of all this.

DEAN: Do you worry at all that that that rewards Putin, that he might do something like this again for more, you know, land and power?

STAVRIDIS: I do worry, but I look at the correlation of forces. Europe collectively, just Europe, leave the United States aside, is the 25 percent of the world's economy. They have the second largest Defense budget in the world collectively. They are all part of NATO, an immense organization. They have a population collectively United States and NATO of ten times that of Russia.

At the end of the day, if Russia is capable of biting off this 20 percent chunk of Ukraine, and I hate it, the Ukrainians hate it, I get that. But at the end of the day, I don't see Putin as a long term threat because his country is weak economically because they have mortgaged their future in this war. They've lost hundreds of thousands of young Russian men, either killed, left the country or grievously wounded. I don't see Putin as this malignant force that suddenly invades Europe successfully.

I also want to talk through what we are seeing in the Middle East as well, where Israel is now preparing for the operation to take over control of Gaza City.

Prime Minister Netanyahu has said that the goal is to eliminate Hamas, that the only way to do this is by going in. Is that actually feasible? It is going to be a huge military task and let me give you a point of comparison, from my own experience in the war in Iraq.

The United States decided we would attack a city called Fallujah. It had a population of about 350,000. It took tens of thousands of U.S. Marines months to subdue this city of 350,000. Gaza City -- Gaza has 2.2 million people. This is a significant military undertaking. I think they barely, potentially are biting off more than they can chew here and I think this is going to be very problematic for Israel going forward.

DEAN: An Israeli official tells CNN that Security Cabinet members shouted at the military chief during this 10-hour meeting, where this was discussed and brushed off his concerns that he was worried about this and they were shouting him down. There is real discord, it appears, between the politics of this and the military piece of this. What does that tell you?

STAVRIDIS: It makes me very worried as a senior military officer, and I know the leadership of the Israeli Defense Forces very well, going back to my time at NATO, when I worked with them constantly, General Benny Gantz, General Gabi Ashkenazi, the current leader, these are rock solid military professionals. The politicians in Israel would do very well to be listening to their advice.

DEAN: All right, Admiral James Stavridis, it is always a pleasure to have you. Thanks so much.

STAVRIDIS: Thanks, Jess.

DEAN: Still ahead, the redistricting fight in Texas heating up as Republicans in the state threaten to arrest Democratic lawmakers. How the battle could change in the primaries for both parties.

Plus, President Trump promised a Golden Age for America, but who will ultimately be paying the new tariffs on items that we buy from China and Canada? Economist, Justin Wolfers joins us next to talk more about that. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:19:31]

DEAN: President Trump warns if the court strikes down his justification for his new tariffs, it would risk another Great Depression. Now that flies in the face of what most economists say, but it is hard to ignore the fact that stocks are near record highs despite the new tariffs and the lingering uncertainty.

Joining us now, economist, Justin Wolfers from the University of Michigan. Justin, thanks so much for being here with us.

Some economists say the economy seems to be kind of in this holding pattern right now. I am curious, what are you more worried about?

Would that be higher prices and inflation from the tariffs or the job market and it showing these signs of weakening?

[18:20:09]

JUSTIN WOLFERS, ECONOMIST, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN: Well, you've given me two pretty terrible things to worry about. You know, I am confident that we are going to see higher prices coming in the second half of the year as a result of the tariffs. I worry that this is the beginning of a slowing economy. We've seen that over the past couple of months. Unemployment is starting to rise, job creation is falling, and I worry that that might be the first shoe to drop.

DEAN: And so despite all of the fears around these tariffs, the S&P 500 is on the cusp of another record and I know that it is not fair to say that the stock market is reality for a lot of people. However, it is an indicator of an economy.

How long can the bull market keep avoiding ignoring the risk? Where do you see this going?

WOLFERS: Yes, it is very interesting in trying to figure out what it is that markets are telling us is a difficult proposition always. So let me tell you a couple of things. I think the most important thing is every time Trump has leaned into his tariff agenda, every time he has raised tariffs, every time he has announced a new set of tariffs, every time he has targeted a new country, markets have fallen. Every time he has backed off, announced a new pause, TACO -- to use the word everyone likes to use, every time he has backed off from the Trump tariff agenda, markets have risen. So what that is, is markets telling you that they believe that these tariffs are not good for American business.

Now, this has occurred even as markets have continued to rise over the past few months. So what's going on there and I think this is a story of two economies. One economy is the excitement about a looming A.I. revolution. There is enormous investment into chips and technology going on there. And then there is the rest of the American economy, which is looking a little bit more humdrum.

Now that A.I. revolution is dramatically overrepresented by the large American companies that make up the stock market and so that's why you particularly see the optimism coming out of the market, because A.I. is overrepresented.

DEAN: That's really -- it is very interesting when you give it that context. It is really fascinating.

The job market has really been the bedrock for the economy. It has just kept going like the Energizer bunny, just going and going and going, and yet now we see indications of a labor weakness.

What do you think that means? What is it signaling to us?

WOLFERS: I love your use of the Energizer bunny, because if I remember that advertisement, well, it was a little bunny rabbit with a drum, and it would just keep drumming time after time, even after other batteries might have worn out. And in some sense, that was the story of the American labor market, which is we kept hitting shock after shock and if you remember, 2022 and '23 people said that there was a recession coming and that bunny just kept drumming along. It was fantastic.

But even Energizer batteries eventually run out of juice and what we have seen in the last couple of months is the very end of that Energizer bunny ad. If you remember, he went boom, boomp, boomp. And the question that put us all on the edge of our seat is, is that Energizer bunny the American job market going to keep drumming along just a little slower, or is it going to stop? And if it stops, that's a recession and very bad news for all of us.

DEAN: And so how do you keep it from stopping?

WOLFERS: Look, if I had the presidency right now, I'd just say, stop the madness!

Look, there are really good and important economic debates to be had out there. There are important debates about fiscal policy, and there are important debates about monetary policy. What there is no debate about, though, is that the incredible uncertainty in the disruption that businesses are waking up every day and instead of thinking about how to produce a better product or what customers they can go after, they're thinking about how best to please The White House, that's a very unhealthy set of incentives for businesses.

So I would urge the President to back off, be a little more like a standard White House, be deliberative. Actually, think about your policy and then announce it rather than announcing it, backing off, re-announcing it, re-backing off, re-re-re-announcing and re-re-re- backing off. I think that chaos is really hurting.

DEAN: All right, Justin Wolfers, always good to see you. I always learn a little something. Thank you so much.

WOLFERS: Pleasure, ma'am.

DEAN: Yes, coming up a major shift in how we count how many people live in the United States. The new order from President Trump that will leave a key group of people out of the U.S. Census moving forward, and why experts say that is unconstitutional. We will discuss it.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[25:29:09]

DEAN: Texas lawmakers at a crossroads as tensions between Democrats and Republicans boil over amid the so-called redistricting arms race. Democrats blocking Republicans' efforts in the State House to redraw congressional maps. The new maps would pave the way for Republicans to gain five additional seats, but not enough Democrats have been in attendance for that effort to advance.

And now Republicans are pulling out all the stops to try and ramp up pressure on Democrats who have fled the state.

Let's bring in CNN's senior political analyst and Bloomberg opinion columnist, Ron Brownstein.

Ron, thanks so much for being here with us. Look, this is just -- it is almost all out redistricting war and just to remind everybody, this is something that typically happens every ten years. This would be in the middle of that ten-year stretch. So the timing is obviously weird and very unconventional.

But we have Republicans doing what they're doing in Texas and then just yesterday, the California Governor, Gavin Newsom, coming out and saying, we are going to take this to the voters to see if they will allow us to do this, too.

[18:30:11]

What do you make of where everything stands right now?

RONALD BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, it's an ominous moment, Jessica. I mean, first of all, you know, we are in a surprisingly decent place on redistricting after 2020. Not that red states and blue states drew a lot of fair maps, but almost all experts who have studied it basically say that the red and blue gerrymanders largely cancel each other out. And we now have a House in which is more sensitive and representative of public opinion than we've seen in many decades, where the party that wins the most votes nationwide is also very likely to win the majority. That obviously is at risk if we have an all-out redistricting war between red and blue states.

And the biggest flaw in the current maps, so like a war could undermine the best feature of the current maps, which is just somewhat inadvertent, but real partisan neutrality. But a war would also compound the biggest flaw in the current maps, which is a lack of competition. There are only 37 districts in 2024 that was decided by five points or less, according to the Brennan Center.

DEAN: That's crazy.

BROWNSTEIN: Both parties, but especially Republicans, yes, have drawn seats that are not competitive, don't really give voters a chance to weigh in. And if we go down this road of all the red and blue states being forced into an all-out war, there'll be even less choice for voters. We'll be in a world where elected officials are picking their voters rather than the other way around.

DEAN: Right, and that's just, you know, not how democracies are supposed to work.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

DEAN: In your latest editorial for Bloomberg, you write: "Focusing on the immediate partisan consequences of this skirmish misses its more troubling long-term implications. The Texas Republican redistricting effort and the role of the Trump White House in promoting it -- exemplifies the 'constitutional hardball' that students of democracy have identified as a key measure of encroaching authoritarianism in nations around the world."

I mean, Ron, that's, that's serious stuff.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Look, I mean, you know, as I say, you can look at the first order effects of this, which is disrupting the reasonable partisan balance of the current lines, reducing competition and chances for voters to weigh in. But then you've got to look at the deeper level, I think, Jessica, because basically the vision that the president is kind of advancing through the pressure on Texas and other Republican states is essentially viewing red and blue states as not neighbors, but fundamentally as enemies locked in this cage match for control of direction of the country.

You know, he's basically asking legislators in Texas to disenfranchise their own voters in order to contribute to the faction, right? I mean, their loyalty to the party nationally is more important than their obligation to their voters at home. And they are, you know, perfectly willing to go along with it. I mean, Democrats, I think, feel they have no choice but to respond in kind. And basically, you move us further down into a world of just unmitigated, unbounded conflict between red and blue states, which is where we have been heading anyway, kind of a cold war among the states. But I think this just, like everything else, it just ratchets it up to a dangerous level.

We don't know what the breaking point is or what it looks like. All I think we know is that we continue to edge closer toward it.

DEAN: And so, what can be done at this moment? To your point, it just seems like we're hurtling toward that without anybody stopping it.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. You know, one redistricting expert I talked to this week described this as a Cuban missile crisis kind of moment for the parties. You know, if you go down this road and you essentially pressure every red state and every blue state to eliminate competition and to squeeze out as many safe partisan seats for their side in this cold civil war between the states, you know, maybe there's an advantage for Republicans at the end, maybe not, but there's a lot of broken, you know, kind of windows along the way.

This really is a moment where if you somehow had cooler heads in the political process, you could look back at what passed the House in '21 and was stopped by a filibuster in the Senate, which was a national set of redistricting rules that would guide every state that would have explicitly banned partisan gerrymandering through statute, not the constitutional basis the Supreme Court rejected in 2019, and would have set a variety of other rules like keeping geographic communities together.

I think, mutual -- you know, kind of the mutual assured destruction here, it's a moment to climb down. I'm not sure, we're going to hear a lot -- we're hearing a few voices on the Republican side saying, you know, mostly from blue states that could be heard in the retribution here. Like, do we really want to go down this road. And I think there are a lot of reasons, as I said, both competitions, but also the deeper question of are we dangerously pulling at the seams that are already fraying between red and blue America.

[18:35:02]

DEAN: All right, Ron, great to see you. Thanks so much.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: And just a note, we will have one of those Democratic congressmen from Texas who would be at risk of losing his seat coming up in our next hour.

Up next, though, nearly 24 years after the horrific attacks on the World Trade Center, New York City officials use new DNA technology to identify three more victims. And CNN did speak with their loved ones. You'll hear from them coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:05]

DEAN: Three victims of the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center in New York have finally been identified nearly 24 years later. The positive identifications come now thanks to new advances in DNA matching. CNN's Leigh Waldman spoke with the son of one of those finally identified. And Leigh joins us now.

Thanks so much for being here with us.

Tell us about how family -- how those family members are reacting tonight.

LEIGH WALDMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jessica, obviously, they're incredibly shocked but so thankful to have some closure after all of this time. This week, after extensive DNA testing, three additional victims from the 9/11 terror attacks have been identified. They are Ryan Fitzgerald, a woman whose family is withholding her name at this point, and Barbara Keating.

We spoke with Barbara's son, Paul, and he said his mother was on one of those planes that was hijacked and they didn't believe they would ever get a positive identification for her after all this time. But the surprise came when the New York City medical examiner's office called them, said they found a hairbrush they believed with her hair in it and tested it against familial DNA. And that's how they were able to positively identify her. It was extensive what they did, meticulously going through six city blocks worth of debris, testing it bit by bit to get to this conclusion.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL KEATING, SON OF RECENTLY IDENTIFIED 9/11 VICTIM: Literally milligram by milligram for 24 years. You know, after moving the entire six city blocks to their location in Staten Island, that is crazy to me. And they've been at it so long and so hard.

Mom was just a superwoman who certainly should not have been murdered in that way. And the city of New York and the medical examiner's office, the state of New York, we'll always have a connection and a debt of gratitude to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALDMAN: And that work is still underway. New York City's chief medical examiner, Dr. Jason Graham, issuing a statement that said, quote, "Nearly 25 years after the disaster at the World Trade Center, our commitment to identify the missing and return them to their loved ones stands as strong as ever." It's incredibly important work that's being done. Eleven hundred victims still need to be identified. They're not going to stop until they bring closure to all of those families. Jessica.

DEAN: Yes. So many families, I'm sure, ready for that.

Leigh Waldman, thank you so much for that.

For over a century, the White House Rose Garden has been a stage for everything from presidential pardons to parties. Once a colonial style garden in the early 1900s, it is now getting a new makeover, this time from a rose garden to a paved patio. CNN's Tom Foreman walking us through the history of the garden and its new look.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voiceover): Call it a new war of the roses with the makeover of one of the world's most iconic gardens, prompting a critic on X to say team Trump's paving job has made the rose garden look like a patio at Panera. While the President insists it's a big improvement over the grassy expanse that rain routinely turned into a squishy mess.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Would take three, four, five days for it to dry out. And we couldn't use it for really the intended purpose. So, yes, we've gotten great reviews on the Rose Garden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN (voiceover): For more than a century, the legendary spot has hosted history. John Kennedy welcomed astronauts here after they returned to Earth.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KENNEDY, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me tell you that you've given the United States a great day and a great lift.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN (voiceover): Richard Nixon launched his daughter into marriage in the garden.

George H.W. Bush welcomed royalty from afar.

Bill Clinton, as a young visitor, met President Kennedy there, then apologized for some of his actions during his presidency near the same spot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I am profoundly sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN (voiceover): Pronouncements, parties and pardons have all had moments in the garden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I hereby grant you a full pardon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FOREMAN (voiceover): But change has come, too. From Edith Roosevelt's colonial garden in the early 1900s to Jackie Kennedy's update in the early 1960s, which established the modern look of the rose garden, to Melania Trump's try just a few years ago. By comparison, that was a minor remake, but it still triggered outraged opposition and left the first lady feeling bruised by the backlash, asking people to accept the very act of planting a garden involves hard work and hope in the possibility of a bright future.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FOREMAN (on camera): It all comes down to a fairly simple equation. President Trump is once again trying to put his indelible stamp on Washington, and there are some people who do not find it to their taste. Jessica?

DEAN: All right, Tom Foreman with the look back. Thanks so much.

Still ahead, a home run for women everywhere as the first woman to umpire a regular season game in Major League Baseball opens up about the start of her historic weekend. That's coming up after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:49:46]

DEAN: Here's a look at some of tonight's top stories. A group of CDC workers say they felt like, quote, "sitting ducks" during Friday's attack on their offices. CDC leaders told staffers Friday's shooting had been targeted and deliberate. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation says the gunmen, possibly motivated by a hatred of vaccines, opened fire on the country's top public health institute, terrorizing the agency, along with the neighboring Emory University and Emory Hospital. That attack also killed one police officer. The suspected gunman was found dead, and an investigation is ongoing.

In California, all evacuation warnings have been lifted in Ventura and L.A. counties for the Canyon fire. Officials say that fire is 28 percent contained, and firefighters have made significant progress reinforcing and strengthening containment lines.

The Gifford fire, also in Southern California, has now reached megafire status, with over a hundred thousand acres burned. The fire is 21 percent contained, and evacuation orders are still in place in many areas in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties. According to CAL FIRE, five firefighters and three civilians have suffered injuries.

Also today, a Major League debut. Jen Pawol, the first woman to umpire regular season Major League Baseball games. She's working the bases today and tonight as the Braves host the Marlins in a day-night doubleheader. Pawol was welcomed by the team's other umpires and fans, with many holding signs with messages like, "Thank you, Jen," from girls and women everywhere.

Pawol was the first base umpire in Game 1 and made several decisive and correct calls. She's at two -- she's at third base in Game 2 tonight and tomorrow, and she'll be calling balls and strikes as the home plate umpire in the final game of the series. For her, 10 years in the minor leagues was well worth the wait. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEN PAWOL, MLB UMPIRE: Just incredible. Like dream came true. Like, the dream actually came true today, and I'm still living in it. And I'm just so grateful to my family, to Major League Baseball for just creating such an amazing work environment, to all the umpires that I work with, who we have just amazing camaraderie, and we're having fun out there. We're working hard, but we're having fun. And I'm just so thankful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: After the game, Pawol donated the cap she wore in her debut to the Baseball Hall of Fame, meaning part of her is now on the way to Cooperstown.

This weekend, on "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper," CNN's David Culver gets a rare look inside a country that was once popular for tourists in South America, but now faces violence and drug trafficking. It's an extraordinary report on how the cartels work and what the government is doing to fight it. Here's a preview of that.

DAVID CULVER, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We reported extensively on Ecuador's collapse, going from a so-called island of peace to one of the deadliest hotspots in the Americas. But we wanted to go deeper, embedding with Ecuador's military and police, going from major cities to coastal towns to even the Galapagos Islands. And what we find lurking off the coast may surprise you, definitely surprised us.

We take you inside fishing villages, out on Navy patrols, and into communities still searching for loved ones who vanished. Yes, the U.S. and Ecuador just signed a new security agreement. And, yes, Ecuador's most feared gang leader, Fito, is now in U.S. custody on charges of drug and arms trafficking. But the violence is worsening. Ecuador's leaders, including the President, are calling for U.S. troops to help.

Officials say 2025 could be Ecuador's deadliest year yet. Here's a look at some of what we saw.

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CULVER (voiceover): Ecuador is not a cocaine producer, and yet the blood spills here. Cocaine is flooding into these streets, and with it, an explosion of brutality. You might think you know this story, gangs, drugs, corruption. But what we find here may surprise you, because this isn't just about cocaine. It's about a system, one that pulls in the poor, empowers the brutal, and protects the powerful.

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CULVER (on camera): Oh, my gosh. There's blood on the ground. Careful with your step here.

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CULVER (voiceover): To understand Ecuador's unraveling, we follow the chain to see who moves, who profits and who pays.

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CULVER (on camera): There's a lot to this story, and, admittedly, it's heavy at times. We meet mothers in their rawest moments of grief. Fishermen who risk everything for a payout, and gang leaders who tell us, very bluntly, they know they're part of the problem, but they don't see a way out.

The thing is, this isn't just Ecuador's crisis. It's spilling beyond its borders, and the U.S. is getting deeper involved than you might realize.

DEAN: All right. An all-new episode of "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper, Ecuador: The Narco Superhighway." One whole hour, one whole story, airs tomorrow at 9 P.M. Eastern, only here on CNN.

Still to come tonight, the redistricting fight in Texas is heating up, as Republicans in the state threaten to arrest Democratic lawmakers. We're going to talk to Texas Congressman Vicente Gonzalez, one of the lawmakers targeted in the GOP's plans to redraw the state's congressional map.

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Stay with us. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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DEAN: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean here in New York, and we start this hour in Texas, where tensions are running high between Democrats and Republicans over the GOP's latest redistricting push. The new congressional maps could offer Republicans five additional seats. In an effort to block Republicans for advancing these maps, some Democrats have fled the state.

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