Return to Transcripts main page
CNN This Morning
Trump Federalizes Police in Washington, D.C.; Bonus 'South Park' Clip Focuses on Noem's Admission of Killing Puppy. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired August 12, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
M.J. LEE, CNN ANCHOR: Say on the podcast that is co-hosted by Swift's boyfriend, an NFL star, Travis Kelce.
[06:00:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAYLOR SWIFT, SINGER: Such a nice color on you.
TRAVIS KELCE, TIGHT END, KANSAS CITY CHIEFS: Yes. I know. It's the color of your eyes, sweetie. That's why we match so well.
SWIFT: We're about to do a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) podcast.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEE: All right. And that does it for us. Thanks so much for joining us here on EARLY START this morning. I'm M.J. Lee in Washington, D.C.
CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: President Trump takes over D.C. police. Is it a warning for other big cities? CNN THIS MORNING starts right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D), WASHINGTON, D.C.: We engage with all officials that impact the district, and that includes the president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Collaboration or occupation? Who's in charge now of fighting crime in the nation's capital?
President Trump and Vladimir Putin's war summit just days away. What Trump says he'll be able to tell in the first two minutes.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. VANCE, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: My hope is that by the time of the midterms, he's kind of come back into the fold.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
J.D. Vance makes nice with Elon Musk. Why both sides really need a MAGA makeup.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sometimes doing what's important means doing what's hard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: "South Park" is not finished with Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem. A new video dropped just hours ago. She's not amused.
And look what you made her do. Taylor Swift with a surprise announcement that's got Swifties feeling all too well.
It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast. Here's a live look at New York City. Good morning, everybody. It's Tuesday, August 12. I want to thank you for waking up with me. I'm Audie Cornish, and this is CNN THIS MORNING.
Right now, Washington, D.C., and its police force is under, quote, "direct federal control." So, what does that mean, exactly? And should other U.S. cities be worried?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: We have other cities also that are bad, very bad. You look at Chicago, how bad it is. You look at Los Angeles, how bad it is. We have other cities that are very bad. New York has a problem. We're not going to lose our cities over this. And this will go further.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Protesters took to the streets of D.C. last night in response to what they say feels more like an occupation.
For now, Mayor Muriel Bowser is prepared to cooperate with what she described as the president's "so-called emergency."
D.C's home-rule laws give the federal government a lot of wiggle room. In the meantime, the mayor says there is a lot that could go wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- and trying to kidnap people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BOWSER: Well, it would be a disaster if communities won't talk to the police if a crime has been committed and could help solve that crime. That could be a disaster. It would be a disaster if people who aren't committing crimes are antagonized into committing crimes. That would be a disaster.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Here's how the White House says it will work. Up to 800 National Guard troops on the streets. FBI agents on patrol with local officers. A new leader called the Federal Commissioner of the D.C. Police Force. And the department now reports to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The president is justifying the power grab. He claims there's a spike in violent crime in D.C. and other cities.
The numbers don't necessarily back him up. Crime has been trending down in cities like Chicago, Baltimore, New York and the district. But the latest move by Trump has Democratic Party leaders on edge.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. J.B. PRITZKER (D), ILLINOIS: He has no, absolutely no right and no legal ability to send troops into the city of Chicago.
MAYOR KAREN BASS (D), LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles was a test case, and I think D.C. is a test case, as well. F or the president to say, well, we can take over your city whenever we want. And I'm the commander in chief, and I can use the troops whenever we want.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Garrett Graff, journalist and historian. He's the author of "The Devil Reached Toward the Sky." Chuck Rocha, Democratic strategist and former senior adviser to Bernie Sanders' presidential campaigns. And Ashley Davis, former White House official for George W. Bush. I'm really glad you guys are all here today.
Garrett, I'm going to start with you, because you have reported on DHS as long as it's existed. So, you know a lot about security issues. What am I looking at here? Who is in charge? Why were there so many names coming up from the White House?
GARRETT GRAFF, JOURNALIST AND HISTORIAN: Yes. So, I think there are three different things that are happening here, which you sort of highlighted there.
There's this unprecedented move under D.C. home rule to federalize the local D.C. police department. Then there's a deployment of federal agents to basically walk beats in the city of D.C.
We've seen DEA. We've seen Border Patrol. We've seen FBI, which is a tremendous waste of resources that we can go into.
[06:05:02]
And then there's this -- this third level, which is similar to what we saw in L.A. earlier this year, where he is federalizing some of the D.C. National Guard and deploying them into the city for sort of reasons unclear, mission unclear.
CORNISH: Or declared emergencies. In that case, looking at the people who were fighting ICE in those riots there.
Gavin Newsom -- I'm glad you brought up California. He was on social saying that the president is just getting warmed up in Los Angeles. And that -- Newsom says Trump "will gaslight his way into militarizing any city he wants in America. This is what dictators do."
Ashley, can I start with you, just because you know about security? What are you looking at here?
ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, there's a couple things.
One, I live in Washington, D.C., for the last 25 years, and obviously, there has been a spike in crime. It is on its way down.
I don't quite understand why people are defending the fact that there is still 1,584 violent crimes from January till now right now. And raising a family here and a son, that is 1,584 too many, no matter what.
But what -- what I'm watching is actually the mayor. So, I think she has been doing a really good job of walking a fine line. She has been asking for these resources. There is a curfew in place now that she put in place in Washington, D.C., for -- for kids up to 17 years old.
CORNISH: Yes.
DAVIS: They can't go out between 11 and 6 because of some of these so- called gangs that come out late at night.
CORNISH: There's also a bill, I think, that the Senate passed that has funding for the district, including public safety, that's held up in the House. Those are Republicans.
DAVIS: Because of -- and the House wants to add more --
CORNISH: Yes.
DAVIS: -- more restrictions on bands (ph). Absolutely.
CORNISH: But, like, that's a situation where people can be, like, we're asking -- we're doing our job.
DAVIS: But I -- I just want to continue real quick, because I think the city council is the real problem here. They are not letting her do what she needs to do. She's been asking for these resources, not just from the federal government, but from city council. They are the ones that are blocking it.
And so, when she gets the criticism for this, it's -- it's -- her hands are tied.
CORNISH: Yes. Which she made clear, I think in --
CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST That's exactly right. And I would -- I would warn Democrats on this show over a year ago, I was talking about how we were telling -- let's talk about Joe Biden.
Joe Biden had an all-time record high unemployment. Stay with me here. I'm going to make a point. The jobs were being created. Economy was on fire, but the American people didn't feel any of that.
CORNISH: Yes.
ROCHA: That's just like us right now saying crime is OK in D.C. Crime is on its way down.
I live in a black ward in D.C. in Ward Seven, and I'll tell you that crime is not going down in my ward. And a lot of people feel that way. But both can be true at the same time.
Talking about these federal lists and all these people coming into the city. People, no matter where they are, don't want to see the militarization of their cities. They do want safe streets.
And Democrats, listen to me, please. Talk about wanting a safe street and lean into wanting safe neighborhoods, while at the same time saying we shouldn't have federal officers in our streets.
CORNISH: So, there's a D.C. Discussion. Then there's a kind of policing discussion. And I think oftentimes D.C. is a lab for Republicans to say, like, OK, here's some laws. If you can see it in place here, it can be a model elsewhere.
And here's how the president is talking about how police officers should be acting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Police are -- and they're told, don't do anything under any circumstances. And you can see they want to get at it. And they're standing there, and people are spitting in their face. And they're not allowed to do anything.
But now, they are allowed to do whatever the hell they want.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: For the longest time, we've heard pushback on "defund the police," on all kinds of social justice efforts to change how policing is done. What's significant about this moment?
GRAFF: Yes, I think what we're seeing this year. Remember, you can't look at any part of this in a vacuum.
CORNISH: Right.
GRAFF: And so, you know, this is coming after months -- we're probably going to talk about it in a little bit in the context of "South Park" -- of sort of the -- the demonization of ICE in America as, you know, Trump has taken the -- the gloves off of ICE.
And what I really worry about, as someone who has covered federal law enforcement for decades, is we are watching Donald Trump sort of sever the moral legitimacy of federal law enforcement in the United States. That he is -- you know, a big part of policing in a free and open society is the permission of the public to be policed.
You know, it's the respect due federal law enforcement officers. It's what Muriel Bowser was talking about in that -- of sort of citizens wanting to help the police.
And what I think I worry about is we're watching sort of ridiculous clips already of the DEA patrolling the National Mall, of the FBI patrolling some of the nightlife districts in D.C.
These are agents who are not trained for this. This is not the work that they want to be doing. These are not the cases that they're supposed to be doing.
And people are laughing at them in the streets of D.C. You know, they are being jeered. They look ridiculous.
[06:10:04]
And what I really worry about is sort of watching the country, or at least portions of the country, begin to turn their backs on federal -- cooperating with federal officers.
CORNISH: OK, hold on. Let's leave it there. We have a couple. No, no, because we have a couple things happening. We're going to talk more about this. We have a D.C. City council member who's going to be on. So, you guys stay with us.
Coming up on CNN, why a judge won't allow the release of Ghislaine Maxwell's grand jury testimony.
And for Swifties, we've got to report to them. Taylor Swift giving a sneak peek into her 12th studio album.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SWIFT: So, I wanted to show you something.
JASON KELCE, CENTER, PHILADELPHIA EAGLES: OK, what do we got?
SWIFT: We got --
J. KELCE: A briefcase?
SWIFT: Yes.
J. KELCE: Mint green with "T.S." on it.
SWIFT: Yes.
J. KELCE: What's in it?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:15:29]
CORNISH: It's now 15 minutes past the hour. Here is your morning roundup.
Right now, investigators in Pennsylvania are working to determine what caused an explosion at a U.S. Steel plant on Monday.
Officials say there was an explosion, followed by several smaller blasts. Two people were killed and ten others injured.
And this is not the first time this has happened at that plant. One person was killed in a blast in 2009, and in another, multiple people were injured the very next year.
A federal judge has denied the Trump administration's request to release Ghislaine Maxwell's grand jury transcripts. The judge wrote, quote, "Its entire premise that the Maxwell grand jury materials would bring to light meaningful new information about Epstein and Maxwell's crimes or the government's investigation into them is demonstrably false."
Maxwell is currently serving 20 years for sex trafficking.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
J. KELCE: What's in it?
SWIFT: This is my brand-new album, "The Life of a Showgirl."
J. KELCE: Aaaaaaahhh!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: And that was the scream, not just from Jason Kelce, but from Swifties around the world.
Taylor Swift announcing her 12th studio album on the "New Heights" podcast, surprise announcement for "Life of a Showgirl" coming in true Taylor fashion.
Her team's dropping those Easter eggs with little orange hearts and mysterious countdown to 12-12 on August 12th. No word yet on when the album will actually drop, though.
Coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, the Trump-Putin war summit is set. But what will Moscow ask for? And can President Trump deliver?
Plus, the "South Park"-Kristi Noem feud isn't over yet. The TV show doubling down with some unaired footage.
And good morning, Philly. Is it too early for a cheesesteak?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:21:35]
CORNISH: "South Park" is taking no prisoners in its new season, and despite backlash from Trump administration officials, they are unfazed.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(MUSIC: "SOUTH PARK THEME")
(SFX: GUNFIRE)
(ENC VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: They actually released this bonus clip on Twitter last night, poking fun at DHS Secretary Kristi Noem's past puppy-killing scandal.
At first, Noem was in on the joke. She and ICE used the show as a recruitment push on social media. But it was fun until it wasn't.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KRISTI NOEM, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY (via phone): It's so lazy. To just constantly make fun of women for how they look.
GLENN BECK, HOST, "THE GLENN BECK PROGRAM": Yes, yes.
NOEM (via phone): Only the liberals and the extremists do that.
BECK: Yes.
NOEM (via phone): It's -- if they wanted to criticize my job, go ahead and do that. But clearly, they can't.
BECK: Yes, yes.
NOEM (via phone): They just pick something petty like that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Vice President J.D. Vance took a slightly different approach. Instead of being the butt of the joke, sharing his "South Park" moment, saying, "I finally made it."
Bringing back the group chat. This is a story that crosses over with several things we're talking about today.
But Noem, out of all the things they sort of accused her of in the way that they're running, she actually picked up on how they depicted her physically? Sort of showing her face melting and all that stuff. And that's where she was like, come on, give me a break.
DAVIS: Yes. I mean, first of all, "South Park" is something that has been fun and making fun of people for, I don't know how many years, 20 years.
But I actually was a little surprised that was her reaction, because she's tough. I mean, she is not -- she's taken criticism forever.
And I don't actually look at it as a woman issue. I just look at it as they're just making fun of everybody. I mean, the dog thing was a little bit worse.
CORNISH: But are they particularly tough on this administration? It feels like once these guys kind of landed their contract and they felt safe enough to not be sued, they're saying whatever they want.
DAVIS: I mean, they make fun of everyone. I remember even under my days in the Bush administration, they would crucify him about making him, you know, sound dumb and everything else.
So, I don't know. I think this is what they do. I'm sure -- I don't know what they did with Biden, but they probably had clips of him falling asleep or something.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: OK. This is a clip of them chasing down people in heaven. Chuck, what do you see? And how -- like, this is very specific criticism.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROCHA: Maybe they just -- maybe this -- in the industry we call it giving them lots of material to work with here over at this administration.
So, like, I think they're talking about the absurdities of what we've been seeing. And that's what I was thinking about. You know, earlier we were talking about like, what does this all mean? And I think that it draws attention to something that's a little absurd.
Like I've said on this program. And I will say it again. There's real people out there that are living with lots of anxiety. And if they were just going and locking up bad people and looking at criminals, we would all be in.
But there's lots of innocent folks, whether it's Dora the Explorer or others, that they're just messing with.
CORNISH: One of the -- go ahead.
GRAFF: I also think some of this is -- sort of historically with fascists, with authoritarians, like they want to be called evil. The thing that actually gets under their skin is being laughed at.
And I think what you're seeing with this administration, sort of top to bottom, is the thing that they are having the hardest time facing, criticism-wise, is being laughed at.
And that's why Trump is going after Colbert. That's why ICE and Kristi and "South Park" seems like such a sort of high-stakes feud, precisely because they hate the humor. CORNISH: And for me, what's interesting is that this is the audience
they've always been going after. When we look at the changes that ICE Is making in its hiring policy, they're now offering recruits as young as 18 the option to come in, kind of changing their age cap. They've got a 50,000 signing bonus, 60,000 student loan repayment.
[06:25:10]
But what I hear in "South Park" and what I see in podcasting manosphere land is, like, they're not talking about ICE in a positive way.
GRAFF: And -- and I think a lot of that has to do with the social media clips that we're seeing shared that, again, dominate the media consumption for that demographic, which, as Chuck is saying.
ROCHA: Lots of local police officers and sheriff's departments right now that are really having a lot of anxiety, because they're losing recruits. Because they're recruiting them away, because it's more.
DAVIS: What I want to watch is do -- does 50 percent of the country stop following "South Park"? Because, I mean, like, that --
CORNISH: They're used to that. It was just a different 50 percent before.
DAVIS: Exactly. I mean, so that'll be interesting to see if they lose viewership. But listen, I think the more --
ROCHA: They're going to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) dollars. They're going to be all right.
DAVIS: Going back to this, the more that you react to it, the more they're going to make fun of you. That's just what "South Park" does.
CORNISH: All right, guys, stick around. We've got a lot more to discuss, not just animated entertainment.
Ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk about Al Jazeera and the death of the journalist in the Middle East after several journalists were killed, in fact, in an Israeli strike.
And Elon Musk is going to be brought back into the fold at the White House? We'll see.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
