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CNN This Morning

Alaska Summit with Putin; Journalist Targeted in Israeli Strike; Christina Henderson is Interviewed about the D.C. Takeover; Trump Delays China Tariffs. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired August 12, 2025 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:31:09]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES (August 11,2025): You know I'm going to see Putin. I'm going to Russia on Friday.

SETH MEYERS, HOST, "LATE NIGHT WITH SETH MEYERS": No, you're not. The White House said you're going to Alaska. Unless, oh, (EXPLETIVE DELETED), did you already give away Alaska?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: OK, so the time and place are set. President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet in Alaska Friday.

Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish. And thank you for joining me on CNN THIS MORNING.

It's half past the hour. And here's what's happening right now.

Final preparations underway for Friday's summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin. It will take place in Alaska, but it's unclear where in the state. This will be Putin's first trip to the U.S. since 2015.

The China tariff truce extended. The U.S. and China have agreed to another 90-day extension, once again delaying the showdown between the world's two biggest economies. The previous deadline was set to expire today. Had that happened, tariffs for both countries would have skyrocketed.

And we're watching Tropical Storm Erin off the coast of Africa. Forecasters expect it to become the first hurricane of the Atlantic season. And it could become a major hurricane by this weekend. Right now it's unclear how and if the storm will impact the East Coast of the U.S.

Details are scarce about Friday's war summit between President Trump and Putin. We do know Ukraine's president, President Zelenskyy, he will not be there. President Trump is tamping down expectations for a ceasefire agreement between Russia and Ukraine. He claims that he'll know within two minutes if a deal can be made.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: This is really a feel out meeting a little bit. And President Putin invited me to get involved. There will be some land swapping going on. I know that through Russia and through conversations with everybody, to the good -- for the good of Ukraine. Good stuff. Not bad stuff. Also, some bad stuff for both.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: The Ukrainians have made their position clear, telling Secretary of State Marco Rubio an unconditional ceasefire is required before serious peace talks can begin and they don't believe Putin is serious.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): He is definitely not preparing for a ceasefire or an end to the war. Putin is determined only to present a meeting with America as his personal victory, and then continue acting exactly as before, applying the same pressure on Ukraine as before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Group chat is back.

We're bringing in CNN global affairs analyst Kim Dozier to the group.

We just heard Zelenskyy lay it out in a way, I've heard it lots before, the win was just getting the meeting. Putin isn't really serious. So, to you, what's left for Trump to feel out, so to speak?

KIM DOZIER, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Hard to tell because nothing Putin has signaled shows that he's willing to compromise on anything. We had mixed signals out of the Witkoff-Putin meeting that preceded this. Basically, Russia's position seems to be, if you give up most of Donetsk, part of the Donbas in eastern Ukraine, then we'll have a ceasefire, a temporary ceasefire. And U.S. officials are talking about Ukraine having to swap some territory. And Trump, once again, in his comments yesterday, blamed Zelenskyy for somehow starting the war. He's -- he's reset back to that Russian talking point position, as opposed to recognizing this as a war of aggression, where a sovereign country was invaded.

CORNISH: Yes. But is that surprising going into a meeting with Putin?

DOZIER: It's surprising in that Putin has won this meeting on U.S. territory without giving any concessions. Meanwhile, India is getting 50 percent tariffs because it continues to sell oil to Russia. So, the U.S. -- the Trump administration is punishing a friend while letting Putin have this meeting of great consequence with nothing given up beforehand.

[06:35:07]

CORNISH: Garrett, you were calling this improv diplomacy.

GARRETT GRAFF, JOURNALIST, HISTORIAN AND AUTHOR, "THE DEVIL REACHED TOWARD THE SKY": Yes, I mean, this is just so weird the way that Donald Trump does international diplomacy. You know, the president of the United States does not walk into a feel out meeting. Like, you have weeks and months of staff work and diplomacy by trained diplomats in --

CORNISH: But they've had a lot of phone calls.

GRAFF: Well, but the president -- normally when you set up a summit like this, there's a point to it. You sort of know whether you're going to have a deliverable or an output. You have sort of the deal, the outline of the deal already agreed upon. And here it's sort of, Donald Trump just, on a couple of days' notice, randomly calling up one of the world's most notorious international war criminals and inviting him to U.S. soil, which is just incredible.

ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER HOMELAND SECURITY OFFICIAL: I respectfully disagree. I think there is absolutely no way that either of these leaders would be meeting unless there's been a lot -- I mean I worked in the White House. You -- I mean a lot of work has gone in from the Biden administration through the Trump administration. There is no way either groups are letting their leaders come in.

Hope -- I think what's the tipping point, going back to your India sanctions, as well as -- and Brazil, which are the two biggest countries, obviously, that will impact Russia oil or Russia gas is, I think that's the tipping point of what brought these -- them together. And also the fact that we're going to put more secondary sanctions through Congress if something doesn't happen soon when they come back in September.

CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes. He wants this political win in the worst way.

DAVIS: Yes.

ROCHA: He wants to just be able to say, I ended this like I -- it would have never -- he said it yesterday. He said, this would have never begun under my watch. And he just wants to be able to say, it's ended because of me.

CORNISH: OK.

I want to move on to another war the president has not been able to make big changes in, which is the war in Gaza. The death of several al Jazeera journalists now raising questions about press freedoms in war zones. Israel says it targeted and killed al Jazeera correspondent Anas al-Sharif after accusing him of leading a Hamas cell, something both he and al Jazeera denied. Just minutes before his death, he posted on X, saying, quote, "if this

madness does not end, Gaza will be reduced to ruins and history will remember you as a silent witness to genocide."

One of his colleagues recently spoke up about the risks of reporting on the crisis in Gaza.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SALAH NEGM, DIRECTOR OF NEWS, AL JAZEERA ENGLISH: Every journalist in Gaza is writing its -- his own obituary because if you're in Gaza, you are not safe anywhere. Whether you are a journalist, or a normal, normal citizen. So, yes, we -- they live in danger all the time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: And just so we have the data here going into this conversation. Since the war began, 192 journalists have been killed. More than half of them were Palestinian.

I first just want to defer to a journalist who's done some wartime reporting.

DOZIER: Yes.

CORNISH: Can you talk about how people are perceiving this in that community?

DOZIER: Now, the Israeli Defense Forces are saying he was a Hamas operative. No one in the Arab world, few people in the journalist world, believe that. And it doesn't matter. He was reporting on air to a -- on -- to -- on a prominent channel to millions of people.

CORNISH: So, it's the issue that targeting that they're just like, yes.

DOZIER: I -- just -- you know, the Israelis didn't build a case and present it in international court or present it to al Jazeera and say, you've got to fire this guy. Instead, they took him out, plus several of his colleagues in a strike, claimed responsibility for it afterwards, thereby sending a message to anyone else, any other journalist who wants to try to cover inside Gaza what's about to happen to Gaza City. The message is, this could happen to you.

CORNISH: To be clear, I don't think journalists are allowed inside, right, this time.

DOZIER: International journalists aren't, but -- but --

CORNISH: Yes, international journalists aren't. So, even the lens grows dimmer.

DOZIER: Every -- yes, every media outlet uses a trusted correspondent inside Gaza. That's what this team was for al Jazeera. And they've all now been told it doesn't matter how prominent you are, if you say something wrong or we perceive you as having talked to Hamas too much, we can take you out.

CORNISH: The other thing, I think, is that there has been a lot of conversation about how al Jazeera covers the war. There's also social media, I think in this day and age, just because, like, people can report without being with a news organization, and a lot of people are seeing images out of Gaza as a result.

DOZIER: But -- but -- but how al Jazeera covers the war, that -- I always tune in to al Jazeera English when I'm trying to get an idea of what the Arab and Muslim world is feeling over Gaza.

But however they're putting things on air, if they're calling it genocide every single time, does that mean that you could just be taken out by a missile?

[06:40:07]

That's a really dangerous message to send.

CORNISH: All right, Kim, thanks for joining the table. I really appreciate it.

The rest of you guys, stick around.

After the break on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to be talking about the president taking over D.C. police. And I'm joined by a city council member. What she says the city needs more than the National Guard in the streets.

Plus, it's a tariff truce. The U.S. and China agreeing to an extension. The sticking points keeping them from a deal.

And we want to know what's in your group chat. Send us to -- send it to us now on X. We're going to be talking about what's in ours after this.

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[06:45:08]

CORNISH: It's now 44 minutes past the hour. And here is your morning roundup.

After a three-year legal fight, the Uvalde School District has released its records from the 2022 Robb Elementary School massacre. Nineteen children and two adults were killed. The files did not reveal any new or damning information. They did highlight the outrage and frustration local officials faced after those killings.

And dramatic video shows the moment a Chinese warship collided with its own coast guard vessels while chasing a boat from the Philippines. It's unclear why the warship was chasing the boat, and if there were any injuries. The South China Sea remains a territorial dispute between China, the Philippines and other nations.

And Paramount is buying exclusive rights to UFC broadcasts for $7.7 billion. It comes days after the Paramount-SkyDance merger. All events will be streamed in the U.S. on Paramount Plus.

And local D.C. officials now trying to figure out what the Trump administration's takeover of D.C.'s police department actually means. During his announcement, President Trump said the department will now be under the control of Attorney General Pam Bondi. D.C.'s local leaders say they got zero notice and learned about it the same way we all did by watching the press conference.

Some angry protesters are taking to the streets. And Mayor Muriel Bowser calls the move "unsettling" and "unprecedented," but hopes to see a silver lining in it all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER, WASHINGTON, D.C.: We engage with all officials that impact the district, and that includes the president. So, I don't expect that that would change from our part.

The fact that we have more law enforcement and presence in neighborhoods, that could not, you know, that may be positive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Joining me now to talk about all of this is Christina Henderson, D.C. city councilmember at-large.

Councilwoman, thank you so much for being here.

CHRISTINA HENDERSON, COUNCILMEMBER AT-LARGE, WASHINGTON. D.C.: Thank you so much for having me.

CORNISH: So, we just heard the mayor say, hey, maybe this could be helpful. Where do you stand at this point?

HENDERSON: Well, I think we're still trying to understand what exactly the public emergency is and how this will be effectuated over the next 30 days.

But the facts remain. This was unprecedented and unnecessary. Violent crime in the district is at a 30-year low. And so, we're hopeful that we're able to work in coordination with our federal partners, as we have in the past.

CORNISH: So, the way the president is talking about it, I just want to show you "The New York Post" today saying, "Fed Up," talking about a crime ridden D.C. That's very much in the language of what we've been hearing from the White House. And here's the D.C. police union, because they're welcoming this development. And here's what the union leader told Fox.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GREGGORY PEMBERTON, D.C. POLICE UNION CHAIRMAN: So, we have more than 800 vacancies for the position of police officer. And the way the department makes up for that gap is through 2 million hours of mandatory overtime every year. So, the fact that we need help from federal law enforcement and maybe even the National Guard, it shouldn't come as a surprise. And -- and we agree with that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: What's your response to this?

HENDERSON: Well, we have over 3,100 sworn officers. And, yes, the -- the union leader is correct, we do have a lot of vacancies. But we have not cut those positions. And we're certainly needing to do more work in terms of recruitment and retention of our officers.

But the National Guard is not law enforcement. The National Guard is designed to help communities with disasters, logistics, large events. And so it's always going to be disconcerting when we have military basically guarding the streets of an American city and their own residents.

CORNISH: We also have, you know, looking at the polling, D.C. mayor's handling of crime. The stats there from "The Washington Post"/Schar School poll, not great. They're saying not good or poor, 58 percent are saying that about the mayor's handling of crime. People in D.C. still, according to this poll, consider crime the top issue. The second actually is President Trump. But can you talk about the fact that there are people in D.C. who are saying, we're hearing a lot, you know, on TV, in the green room, so to speak, like that people have their own war stories sort of, of being in the district.

HENDERSON: Right. There's 700,000 people who live here. We're a large urban city that hosts millions of visitors each and every year. I'm not saying that crime is perfect. No city is perfect. And -- but there are other ways for which we could be utilizing our federal partners.

A lot of people don't realize that public safety in the district has always been a unique partnership between the local government and the federal government. For instance, we don't pick our judges. We don't pick our prosecutors. There's a federal agency that is in charge of monitoring those individuals who've been charged with a crime, but have been released pretrial.

And so, when I hear from our federal partners that we need to do more on crime, I also want to say to them, I need you to do more on crime. I have a 21 percent vacancy in my D.C. superior court. That's criminal, family, juvenile. All of these cases. And when you have -- don't have swift justice, I believe that is a bigger deterrent than having thousands of police officers and the National Guard on our streets.

[06:50:06]

CORNISH: I want to ask you about something that Jeanine Pirro said. She blamed D.C. policies on the -- passed by the city council for the situation. She also was talking about the ability to prosecute essentially teenagers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEANINE PIRRO, U.S. ATTORNEY FOR WASHINGTON, D.C.: They know that we can't touch them. Why? Because the laws are weak. I can't touch you if you're 14, 15, 16, 17 years old.

I can't arrest them. I can't prosecute them. They go to family court. And they get to do yoga and arts and crafts.

We need to go after the D.C. council and their absurd laws.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HENDERSON: I welcome a conversation with the U.S. attorney, as we did with her predecessor, where we worked to review laws and try to craft solutions together. That's what normal legislatures do. They have the opportunity to review, to see what's working, what's not, and make changes without having to consider 535 members of Congress and a president of the United States being engaged in that effort.

I would push back on her suggestion that juveniles are not prosecuted. Again, they're playing on folks not understanding the differences between what's happening in the district and otherwise.

She is the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia. Yes, she does not prosecute juveniles. But we also have an attorney general who does prosecute juveniles.

So, we need to put some -- we have, rather, put some place -- some amendments in place to ensure that there's stronger accountability for our young people. But charging a 14-year-old as an adult and locking them away and throwing away the key, I don't think any American would say that's justice. We want rehabilitation for our young people. And that is something we're continuously working on here in the district.

CORNISH: D.C. is in a particular case because it's not a state. It has this tie to the federal government. Are Democrats using a fair analogy in saying we could be next, our city could be next?

HENDERSON: I mean, I was listening to the president's press conference yesterday, and I think it should be concerning to all Americans that he talked about other cities, Baltimore, Chicago, L.A., et cetera. Noted that most of these cities are -- have black leadership at the helm. But all of these are large American cities that have issues and challenges.

The District of Columbia, for decades, without statehood, has always been used as a petri dish, where Congress or the federal government is trying out ideas here. So, I would hope that folks don't lose sight of what's happening in the district. And even if they don't live here, they fight hard with us.

CORNISH: All right, Councilwoman Christina Henderson, I'm sure you're going to hear a lot from people in the next day. Appreciate your time.

HENDERSON: Thank you for having me.

CORNISH: All right, President Trump is backing off again when it comes to imposing steep tariffs on China. He just signed an executive order that extends a tariff truce with Beijing for 90 days. That truce was supposed to expire today. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We've been dealing very nicely with China, as you probably have heard. They have tremendous tariffs that they're paying to the United States of America. And we'll see what happens. They've been dealing quite nicely. The relationship is very good with president -- with President Xi and myself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Without the extension, tariffs would have surged to levels that would bring trade between the world's two largest economies to a halt.

I want to go live to Beijing and bring in CNN's Marc Stewart.

What are we hearing from China's leadership in response?

MARC STEWART, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Audie. Good to see you.

What we are seeing from China is government officials very much sticking to script, talking about, once again, the need for respect and mutual benefit when it comes to these trade matters. This extension, as you mentioned, it only lasts 90 days. So, this will take us into early November. And the list of potential issues to -- to tackle, it's long. It's everything from chip access, rare earth mineral access. We heard President Trump just recently talk about the need for China to buy more soybeans, quadruple the amount. It's about China's purchases of sanctioned oil from Iran and from Russia. The fentanyl issue still on the list, as well as TikTok.

Audie, I remember when all of this started to come to surface. One analyst telling me that this is not something that could necessarily be negotiated and resolved in just a few months. And as we are clearly seeing now, this is proving to be a very lofty challenge between these two economic superpowers.

CORNISH: Marc, can I ask one question there? You mentioned I think it was Russian and Iranian oil. We see a country like India, Brazil, they're suffering for -- through tariffs because the president doesn't want them taking Russian oil. Can you talk about the relationship between China and Russia? How is that going to affect things?

[06:55:00]

STEWART: Well, these two nations, well, let's just say Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, they have a very strong relationship. They've declared themselves having a no limits friendship. They share this view of a new world order, a -- different than what we have seen from the past. In fact, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping recently spoke, as we anticipate this summit later in the week between -- between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.

I think it's safe to say that perhaps Vladimir Putin may be a messenger for either Xi Jinping or President Trump, and vice versa. But this is a deep friendship. We have seen the two men hug when they were in Beijing. And, Audie, I should also tell you that the Russian influence here in Beijing is palpable. There are a lot of Russian stores, a lot of Russian goods are for sale. There's a strong link here.

CORNISH: OK, CNN's Marc Stewart in Beijing, thanks for that context. Appreciate it.

And coming back to Washington, could we be seeing a reunion of a short-lived bromance we'll call it? J.D. Vance hope so. In a new interview, Vance urged Elon Musk to make up with the president and called for an end to their feud.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: If you're patriotic, you're not trying to stick your knife in the back of the president, you're not trying to betray the movement. And the president even says --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was great.

VANCE: All this frustration, Elon was a very critical part of the team last -- last election. And so, my hope is by the midterms things are kind of back to normal.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, is it that he wants to get the band back together, or does he know the GOP needs Elon's support for the midterms?

Group chat is back.

Chuck, I'm going to start with you because I know you care about the midterms. I just want to note --

ROCHA: Thank God we're not talking about foreign policy anymore. Let's talk about elections.

CORNISH: It -- after the interview, Elon actually started posting more sort of Trump kind comments on X. And one he was talking about the president's decision to federalize the police force. And -- but he, prior to this, had been talking about the America party. So, help me make sense.

ROCHA: When they say they would love to have Elon's support, bunny ears this morning. Support means money. He gives so much money to the Republican Party. Not just a little bit of money, but he just gave, even when he was mad, $100 million to different super PACs and party committees. It's the lifeblood of politics until we change our rules. And as we've talked about on this show, in the midterms, it's just about motivation. So, it takes more money to remind you more times that there's an election coming up, not every four years, but every two years.

CORNISH: Also, when he's tweeting about stuff like this, what he's not talking about is Epstein, which is what he was talking about. DAVIS: Well, yes, of course. Which is why I don't understand why

Democrats keep taking the bait on this law and order issue with the D.C. government, because now it looks like the Democrats are not for law and order instead of talking about Epstein. I mean this is like the brilliancy of how Trump messages and gets people away from what he doesn't want to talk about.

CORNISH: What's key is messenger, message, and also location. That particular outlet is very much a hotbed of these kind of conspiracy oriented conversations. So, he's speaking directly to the folks who still want to be talking about Epstein.

GRAFF: Well, and the people who want to be talking about Elon Musk. I mean I think you have to remember sort of what a figure Elon Musk is to a certain slice of the MAGA base.

CORNISH: Yes, leader of the tech right, yes.

GRAFF: Yes.

CORNISH: So, what do you see in J.D. Vance kind of extending some version of an olive branch here?

GRAFF: I think they would much rather have J.D. Vance inside the tent urinating than outside the tent urinating in --

CORNISH: So, you need Musk. OK.

GRAFF: Yes.

CORNISH: OK.

So, I want to talk about your group chats. What you guys are thinking about. Earlier today we've talked about a lot. Garrett, let me start with you. What are people talking about?

GRAFF: I really think this D.C. police takeover is not going to age well. And, you know, I've had a lot of conversations with current and former federal law enforcement over the last 24 hours. They want no part of this. And -- and I think I'm worried about the trajectory of this over the next 30 days.

CORNISH: OK, you guys, I hear you have the same one.

ROCHA: Kind of. But mines more like, I live in D.C., and I live in the shadows of the old RFK Stadium. And my chat blew up last night because it's -- we've been having problems in our neighborhood with juveniles and kids out causing trouble, and we've -- we've been really trying desperately to fix this problem as a community. And we just had a stadium kind of shoved down our throats that's going to be there. So, in the group chat it's like, well, we have enough money for this stadium and $1 billion, but we can't fix this crime problem. Now we have to deal with Trump and the federalization. So, my group chat was going off last night.

CORNISH: Yes, people kind of reckoning with -- ROCHA: Right.

CORNISH: We do have concerns, but is this the way to solve that?

ROCHA: Exactly.

CORNISH: OK.

Ashley, you?

DAVIS: Well, you should run for city council there, Chucky.

ROCHA: Stop it. You know, we all know that will make my eye twitch.

DAVIS: I am watching -- so, what I've been hearing this morning and last night is, Chairman Comer from the Oversight Committee in the House is going to -- when they come back in two weeks, are going to call up city council, not the mayor, to ask what they're doing in regards to the crime and the mistakes -- potentially the mistakes that he's saying they made. So --

[07:00:04]

CORNISH: Well, it sounds -- based on these group chats, it sounds like the convo has changed with this announcement yesterday for a lot of people, not just here in D.C., but beyond.

You guys, thank you so much for being with us. You're a great group. Thank you for waking up with us. I'm Audie Cornish. And "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" starts right now.