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Trump Threatens Federal Government Will Run Washington, D.C.; Sex Toys Thrown on Court During WNBA Games. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 08, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

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[06:30:00]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. I'm Audie Cornish. I want to thank you for joining me on CNN This Morning. It is now 32 minutes past the hour, and here's what's happening right now.

Israel has approved a plan to occupy Gaza City and has set a deadline to do so by October 7th. Their ultimate goal, defeat Hamas and gained security control of the entire strip. It's coming with fierce criticism. Protests broke out around Israel before a cabinet vote. Families of hostages are calling the plan a death sentence for their relatives.

And today is the deadline for Democratic lawmakers to return to Texas. The state attorney general plans to declare their seats vacant if they aren't back. The lawmakers left the state Sunday to avoid voting on redistricting maps. The FBI has also been called in to help find them.

Dangerous heat in the West fueling wildfires in California today, the Gifford Fire in the central part of the state could reach mega fire status nearing 100,000 acres burned. And near L.A., the Canyon Fire, is spreading, jumping to more than 5,000 acres in just a matter of hours. Thousands of people have been evacuated.

And President Trump now claims D.C. is unsafe and he wants the feds to take over. But can he do that? Well, this all started when 19-year-old former DOGE staffer Edward Coristine was assaulted and attempted carjacking. The president is taking it as a sign that D.C. has a problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We're going to do something about it. So, whether you call it federalized or what.

[06:35:00]

And that also includes the graffiti that you see, the papers all over the place, the roads that are in bad shape, the rate of crime, the rate of muggings, killings, and everything else. We're not going to let it. And that includes bringing in the National Guard maybe very quickly too.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: As of last night, the White House is increasing federal law enforcement in the city, at least for a week. And the president says the city should change the laws to let prosecutors try kids as young as 14 as adults.

The group chat is back. The reason why I wanted to talk about this is because there's long been a conversation about taking away home rule from D.C. Republicans have talked about that for a long time.

Virginia, can I start with you? Is this the first step in that conversation?

VIRGINIA ALLEN, PODCAST HOST, THE DAILY SIGNAL, PROBLEMATIC WOMEN: Well, you know, the president. You know, he has several options here. I think obviously his frustration is this is our nation's capital. It's a beautiful place for all Americans to come and enjoy. And so it is concerning to see so much crime here in our nation's capital. Like the president has said publicly, you know, he's considering sending in National Guard. He does have the authority to temporarily take control of D.C. Police, but not permanently.

I think though this really comes down to a factor of is there accountability for criminals? Are prosecutors prosecuting to the full extent of the law we've seen across the nation, fortunately, crime is down, violent crimes specifically.

CORNISH: Yes. We should point to those numbers, violent crime down 26 percent. This is from the D.C. Police Department. Assault with a dangerous weapon down, and also property crime is down. So, this is supposed to be a good thing. Right now, it's not being talked about that way.

To your point, people have been talking about the youth in the city, specifically Jeanine Pirro, she's the new D.C. prosecutor, and here's what she had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR D.C.: If you think that these kids need to be coddled and they need to be hugged, they need to have consequences, they need to understand that enough is enough, that we're going to put them in jail or some kind of youth rehabilitation detention facility and not allow the D.C. counsel, one of whom I just recently indicted, to take cover for these kids. It's time to end it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, this has come up because the young man who was trying to -- who was assaulted, Big Balls, as he was known during the DOGE years, basically tried to intervene in a carjacking. I don't know if they're saying that kids did this, but, clearly, they're talking about it that way.

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: There's, I think -- well, the two people that they apprehended were teenagers. I think what we have seen in D.C. is a lot of juvenile crime linked to specifically carjackings. And that happened during -- as a D.C resident, I lived it firsthand, that happened really -- started spiking during the pandemic.

I think a couple of things about this, first of all, a lot of the crime that happens in D.C. does come in from the surrounding states, so Maryland and Virginia. D.C. is a very defined space. So, it is complicated with dealing with crime because it is not just a D.C. problem. A lot of people come in and commit crimes and then go out. Dealing with juvenile crime, we know, isn't just like throw them into facilities and just, you know, throw away the key and rehabilitate them, quote/unquote, is a much more complicated thing to deal with. These are ultimately children under the law.

And then the last thing I'll say is, I'm surprised by all this because I think what President Trump has kept on saying is that the federal government is bad at everything and it needs to be sort of defunded and everyone needs to be fired. And so suddenly it needs to actually intervene in how a city is run. This is really the antithesis of anything any Republican has ever stood for before. So, again, Donald Trump sort of mixing up some of his messaging.

CORNISH: But we hear him saying lots of time like with L.A. and the riots there, like he's prone to saying we should get involved here if we think it's --

GARCIA-NAVARRO: No, he wants to put military in lots of different cities across America. But there is a sort of fundamental disconnect between his bigger policies about federal government and when it should get involved, and then wanting to actually put military on the streets of American cities.

CORNISH: Okay. You guys stick around. We have more to talk about. I'm going to do a hard turn to a different subject right now, the WNBA. Because as the league is growing and growing in popularity, they're drawing more attention, good and bad. And here's the latest problem that they've got to navigate.

Basically, you have sex toys being thrown onto the court during the games. This has happened at least six times in the last ten days.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHERYL REEVE, MINNESOTA LYNX HEAD COACH: This has been going on for centuries. The sexualization of women, this is the latest version of that. And it's not funny.

The sexualization of women is what's used to hold women down, and this is no different. This is just its latest form.

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[06:40:00]

CORNISH: A group of crypto bros is claiming responsibility, describing them as pranks. Two people have been arrested. Joining me now to discuss CNN Sports Analysts and USA Today Columnist Christine Brennan. Her new book, On Her Game, Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports, is available now.

Christine, we talked about the arrests. What are the other options available to the WNBA?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Audie, they can certainly start to clamp down a little bit more at the entrance points. Although let's be real, as you have more fans going to the WNBA games than ever before, the idea of searching each person coming in is probably inefficient and also ridiculous.

I have actually paid for tickets to go to some games this year with family just to be in the arena. And the -- you know, you already go through metal detectors. Of course, they're not going to catch something that's plastic. And they really do a pretty good job of keeping an eye on people's jackets and also the purses have to be small, but, of course, these are the crypto bros. I doubt that they have purses coming in.

But it's -- they need to make sure to find these people and get them and maybe catch them before they actually throw it. There's fans who can see things as well nearby. So, there's a lot that needs to be done. This is just an utter embarrassment, and it is certainly an absolute misogyny at its worst, one of its worst forms.

CORNISH: I want to show you something we saw from the son of the president posting on Instagram, which is this like very strange image, I guess, that he's jerry-rigged together with A.I. of his dad. And I don't even want to -- there it is. You can look at it. But, basically, I noted that the Trump family, you know, they've profited from crypto. They've got $2.9 billion in these kinds of ventures. So, it looks like we don't expect to get help from the White House on this. Kind of what's your view of whether this is helpful or not?

BRENNAN: Yes. Well, it's not helpful at all. You know, this is -- I mean, it's easy -- the first time it happened, some of the players laughed about it, Audie, and they just kind of, you know, thought it was ridiculous. Now, as you mentioned, six times, my USA Today colleagues are reporting that and have talked to these guys who said, oh, we meant nothing. You know, that is ridiculous. Of course, they meant nothing. They're targeting these incredible women. Most of them have college degrees. They are title products of Title IX. They are the girl next door or the girl you see in the kitchen every morning now all grown up.

And at this moment for the WNBA, when there are more eyeballs than ever before, it makes a lot of sense if you want to cause trouble and, you know, be awful towards women and awful in general to do something like this, to get fame or what have you. But it's absolutely the worst possible thing for a league that is just exploding in interest and is role models for your daughters, for your sons, grandsons, granddaughters. It's not a laughing matter, especially going all the way up to the White House. CORNISH: That's Christine Brennan. Christine, thanks so much. And you can check out her book, On Her Game, Caitlin Clark and the Revolution in Women's Sports. That's out now.

Next on CNN this morning, the FBI brought in to bring the Texas Democrats back home. Do they have the authority to do that? We're going to talk to Elliot Williams when we lawyer up.

Plus, if you're a parent, you know Miss Rachel and she wants you to know where she stands on Gaza.

And we want to know what's in your group chat. Send it to us on X. We're going to be talking about ours in a moment.

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[06:45:00]

CORNISH: It is 47 minutes past the hour. Here's your morning roundup.

Family members of Jeffrey Epstein's accusers are speaking out as his associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, is moved to a lower security prison. In a recent letter, they say, quote, this moves smacks of a cover-up. The letter comes as President Trump calls the Epstein scandal of hoax.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMANDA ROBERTS, VIRGINIA GIUFFRE'S SISTER-IN-LAW: They were shamed. They were bullied. They were threatened. And now after they've gotten the justice that they so rightly deserve to have that ripped from them, and then using words like hoax, it's just -- it's gutting.

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CORNISH: Amanda is the sister-in-law of Virginia Giuffre, who worked at Mar-a-Lago before being recruited by Epstein, leading to her abuse. She died by suicide earlier this year.

Construction at Alligator Alcatraz is being stopped temporarily. A federal judge weighing concerns from environmental activists who say the Everglades wetlands are in danger. A restraining order will be in place for two weeks as the hearing continues, and the order doesn't affect operations at the detention center.

CORNISH: From superhero to ICE agent, actor Dean Cain, who played Superman in Lois and Clark in the 90s, says he is joining the ranks of ice. Cain made the announcement on Fox News saying he signed up after seeing a recruitment video on social media. He's got a background in law enforcement and was a deputy sheriff at one point.

And the big legal headline this week is whether FBI agents have the authority to actually track down Texas Democratic lawmakers who fled their state. As we lawyer up with Elliot Williams, we're going to take a closer look at that story and some other legal headlines that you might have missed this week. So, Texas Senator John Cornyn says the FBI granted his request in regards to the case. He's given very few details about what that request actually looks like.

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SEN. JOHN CORYNY (R-TX): I wrote a letter to Director Patel of the FBI, and I asked him to look into the matter and he responded to me directly saying that he had assigned agents in both the San Antonio and Austin office to meet my request.

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[06:50:00]

CORNISH: And that's where we bring in CNN Legal Analysts and former Federal Prosecutor Elliot Williams. Hey, welcome back.

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Hi there.

CORNISH: Okay. So, we've all been following this story because of the politics of it. What are you following?

WILLIAMS: Whether the FBI can actually do anything. And, you know, to answer the question, can they -- what can they do? They can help Google where the folks are for the most part. But, you know, that's a little -- that's a glib way of putting it. They can help track people down, perhaps, using some of their fugitive searching techniques, but they can't arrest anybody. They can't assist in the law enforcement.

CORNISH: Because there's no law being violated.

WILLIAMS: There's no federal law being violated. And the FBI's authority to arrest would only come in if a federal law were being violated.

Now, they're accused of breaking their quorum in violation of sort of Texas state legislature rules, but that's for the governor to file a lawsuit against them in the state of Texas.

Now, again, the FBI is great at finding people around the country, but they can't arrest anybody here.

CORNISH: I want to touch on another story from today. We've been talking about the Israeli's government plan to sort of expand their military campaign in Gaza. And here in Stanford, the student newspaper is actually trying to sue the Trump administration saying that you cracking down on foreign students who've spoken out on Gaza, spoken out on these issues, as we saw last year, is having a chilling effect across campus. It's violating their right to free speech. In their op- ed, they said as an independent student paper, whose mission is to represent the voices of Stanford community, this fear of the government directly impacts the quality of our work.

Are they going to have a case here? Is this, in any way, a novel argument? WILLIAMS: It is a novel argument. It is a fascinating case, and I would even go as far to say, it's a very important case about what is free speech in the country when set against the government's ability to carry out immigration law.

The problem here is it's so conditional. It's we fear that if our people speak a certain way that the government might find uncomfortable, then the government may exercise its discretion to revoke their visas. There's a lot of layers on that.

CORNISH: To be clear, the State Department has actually deported students for a variety of reasons.

WILLIAMS: Sure.

CORNISH: And there was even one student who people believe it was because of an op-ed they wrote.

WILLIAMS: Absolutely. But if you read the Stanford lawsuit, it's, we feel that our speech might be chilled going forward on account of this. It's an important consideration, but at least as this case is filed, you know, I think it's going to be hard for them to win in the way that they want.

CORNISH: Okay. So, then there's also this weird legal story pitting dad bods against girl dads, hashtag on folks (ph).

WILLIAMS: It's the fight of our generation, really?

CORNISH: Yes, it really is, just our generation, just because we're talking about the bots. What is going on here and what does it say about the state of like litigation, Happy Americans?

WILLIAMS: Absolutely. And sort of as a girl dad with a dad bod, I do feel seen by this lawsuit. But, no. It's -- so the owner of the trademark, Girl Dad, and they trademarked it.

CORNISH: They trademarked that?

WILLIAMS: They literally trademarked it, sued this entity called Dadbod LLC, over their use of the expression brought to you or support your local girl dad.

Now, it's a little bit tricky here because, yes, they do own it, but, you know, these are terms that get thrown around in society and quite --

CORNISH: Yes, I thought you couldn't really do that. Yes. And so --

CORNISH: I remember Paris Hilton tried to do, that's hot.

CORNISH: Right. Well, you can't -- I mean, I was trying to think of it. There are even more absurd ones than that than that's hot. But, no, the simple fact is in America you can trademark just about anything. In America, you can sue people for just about anything. And this is sort of the extreme of, oh my God, what are we doing, people? So, we'll see how this one plays out. It might get dismissed. It might actually mean the end of the word girl dad for this entity. I don't know.

CORNISH: But not dad bod? I think that one's fine.

WILLIAMS: Dad bods are here to say.

CORNISH: Okay, putting your paperwork for lawyer up, all right, because I want to be able to hold onto that.

All right, following up on another free speech issue, we all know Ms. Rachel. She's got more than a billion views. She's a content creator for children. She's got more than 60 million YouTube subscribers. She wants to shift the focus of those fans to the crisis in Gaza.

All right, so one look at her feed on Instagram and it's all about what's going on. She's met with children injured in the war who have come to the U.S. for medical treatment. She's gone as far as to risk career opportunities, saying that anyone who wants to work with her, well, if they haven't spoken out about Gaza, she's, quote, not comfortable working with them.

Speaking to CNN last night, she made an emotional plea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RACHEL GRIFFIN-ACCURSO, MS. RACHEL: As an early childhood educator, I know what children need. They need food. It's being blocked. They need water. It's being blocked. They need to be in school. Their schools have been bombed. They need medical care.

I know what children need to thrive, and I know what holds them back. And it was very clear to me along with so many others in our country and around the world, that it's so critical to speak up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:55:03]

CORNISH: For some context here, more than 50,000 children have been killed or injured in Gaza since Israel's war began. That's according to UNICEF.

I'm bringing back the group chat. Not to kind of criticize what she's saying about Gaza, but I'm interested in the fact that she's saying it because so many celebrities have really backed off of talking about this issue.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Certainly, it's an interesting moment for her to be using her platform to speak out on such an intensely polarizing issue, and it's something that she's received a significant amount of backlash, but it's also not something without precedent. I mean, you've seen Raffi talk about the environment and Sesame Street has tackled some really complex political issues as well. What's different here is that Ms. Rachel is using her platform that is theoretically for adults only. Things like Instagram, as you mentioned, she's not really doing it on her programming, and that is about to change.

CORNISH: Well, she's featuring the kids on the programming.

KLEIN: Now that she's featuring this child. So that takes it a step further, which is --

CORNISH: Yes. What's striking to you guys about this?

ALLEN: Well, obviously it's a highly emotional issue all life, especially the lives of children are so worthy of being protected. I think as an educator, I would love to see Ms. Rachel also be highlighting the lives of the Israeli children who have been so affected. And to even though kind of juxtapose, okay, you know, this week, we saw that it would've been the sixth birthday for Ariel Bibas, who was taken hostage on October 7th and died in Gaza. And I think also to remember that there is no future and there is no hope for the children of Gaza if Hamas remains in power.

CORNISH: That feels like beyond what a children's content creator is going to go into the politics of it. Is she also able to do it because she's financially secure? She's a content creator, which means she is in charge of herself. She doesn't have a corporate boss. I'm asking because you see South Park creators, right, going after Trump, and it feels like the people who feel most confident speaking out are the people who feel like they can't be taken down.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I think that's exactly right. I think you hit the nail on the head. You know, when we see people taking polarizing positions, they don't have a corporate overlord to take away their platform. They don't have a boss to say, actually, this violates my company's free speech policy.

CORNISH: They can still be boycotted.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You know, they can, right, but they take that risk, right? They have a relationship directly with the consumer. And if people want to continue to watch -- excuse me. If people want to continue to watch Ms. Rachel, then they can continue to watch Ms. Rachel. If they're offended by her positions on anything, Gaza or anything else, that is a very direct relationship that she puts at risk, or she finds other fans for. So, you know, that is a calculation that she makes and, ultimately, it is a free speech issue. She is entitled to her opinion.

CORNISH: Yes.

KLEIN: She's also the number one watched kid show on Netflix.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: Absolutely.

CORNISH: So, the question is, will she stay that way, right? That's what everyone is going to be watching. You guys. I want to talk about your group chats because this Ms. Rachel story is the exact kind of story that has flown around in chats in my world. It's you send a link and you're like, can you believe what's going on? Elliot, what have you been talking about?

WILLIAMS: Honestly, I'm a big fan of the W, the WNBA and this story does fascinate me, the sex toy story. And who gets charged with crimes over it? Does it happen again now that we know what the basis of it was with this crypto scheme? Do people keep doing it? You know, and to pick up on everything that Christine Brennan said, it's not just a meme, it's not just a joke, it's not just trolling, it's demeaning conduct. It's sort of, you know, audio along the lines of in soccer, the bananas being thrown at African players --

CORNISH: Oh, yes, that's true.

WILLIAMS: -- as a means of keeping them down when they speak up, and that's what you're seeing in the WNBA. It is atrocious.

CORNISH: And Cosmo was speaking out about this, Glamor magazine, like not your political rags, right?

WILLIAMS: And it's not just a women's issue. It is a -- you know, as these folks have sort of started speaking about pay equity, that's when the sex toys have shown up. It's not just a joke.

CORNISH: Okay. Virginia, to you, what's in your chat?

ALLEN: Well, so this week, you know, with so much heavy news going on, I have enjoyed a little bit of light humor with friends and family about Trump being on the roof of the White House. And there has been plenty of jokes about that, of --

CORNISH: Yes, not the image we saw earlier. That was not factual.

ALLEN: No, not that. But, you know, it was very humorous to see the president literally taking questions from reporters on the roof of the White House and has also provided some great meme content across the internet.

CORNISH: I had never actually seen someone on the roof of the White House. Like I actually was (INAUDIBLE). Lulu?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: You know, my group chat is limited to actually what you're going to see here on USA Today, which is the return of Wednesday Addams, because I have a 12-year-old. And we have been --

CORNISH: Addams Family reboots are -- yes.

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, this --

CORNISH: Are you an Addams Family person?

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I am very much so. I loved the first series of this reboot. I love the old show. This is -- I like the fun darkness. I'm really excited about this. I'll also say this weekend, also excited about Freakier Friday. This, again, dates me nostalgia stuff. I like all --

CORNISH: You're part of the Lohanaissance.

[07:00:00]

GARCIA-NAVARRO: I am a big -- I'm a big fan of the Lohanaissance.

CORNISH: Okay, Betsy, last word to you.

KLEIN: We are talking about the Mar-a-Lago-fication of the White House Rose Garden. If --

CORNISH: Meaning it was paved over, the patio, gold sun umbrellas.

KLEIN: If that wasn't enough though, now we are seeing these yellow and white iconic striped umbrellas installed in the last couple of days. So, clearly --

CORNISH: Iconic because?

KLEIN: There at Mar-a-Lago.

CORNISH: Okay, all right. Look for that in your group chats. Thank you for waking up with us. Please stay with us for the headlines.

I'm Audie Cornish and CNN News Central starts now.