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Blanche: DOJ Will Not Pledge Independence from White House; Trump Scales Back Military Exercises with South Korea Hours Before; Democrats Set 2028 Primary Calendar: South Carolina Up First. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired August 17, 2026 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:10]

AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: Today in the group chat, we're talking about new Attorney General Todd Blanche: refuses to pledge independence from Trump. Was it naive to think he would?

And Democrats finalize their 2028 calendar. Racially diverse states will be up first. How does that help the party find its strongest candidate?

And right now, the president's son-in-law looking for a deal for Gaza. He says he's got Hamas on board. So, will Israel also agree?

And 30 years later, Tupac's murder trial set to begin today. Will we see justice?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Did you have anything to do with the murder of Tupac Shakur?

DUANE DAVIS, DEFENDANT IN MURDER TRIAL OF TUPAC SHAKUR: No, ma'am.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: Good morning, everybody. I'm Audie Cornish, and if you're the attorney general of the U.S., who exactly do you work for?

Todd Blanche has officially been in that job for a week. Some Republican senators voted against his nomination, because they question whether the president's former criminal defense attorney could lead an independent Justice Department.

On NBC on Sunday, Blanche was asked if he could pledge his department would act independently of the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: No, I'm not going to pledge that. And no attorney general should ever pledge that. The president -- I mean, if I were to pledge I will be independent of the White House, what that means is that if President Trump says, I want the Department of Justice to go after every violent criminal in this country, which is what he has said, what you're saying to me is I should say, No, sir, I'm not going to do it.

So, there's -- I will act with integrity. Our prosecutors will act with integrity. We will prosecute without fear or any sort of favor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. Joining me now in the group chat, Sara Fischer, CNN senior media analyst and senior media reporter at Axios; Tiana Lowe Doescher, political commentator with "The Washington Examiner"; and Joel Rubin, former deputy assistant secretary of state for the Obama administration. He's also the author of "The Briefing Book" on Substack.

Thank you, guys, all for being here.

I want to start with you, Sara. If you go on to the website and the DOJ mission, it says to uphold the rule of law, keep our country safe.

And then under values, the first thing is "independence and impartiality."

Can you talk about what that means in the last couple of years, when there have been these really vicious fights over A.G.s and their performance?

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: OK. So, let's zoom out. Just think about broadly the Trump administration.

I cover the FCC, and last year the FCC chair, Brendan Carr, was being -- was testifying before Congress. And he said the exact same thing that Todd Blanche is saying, that actually, I can't commit that this agency will be independent of the White House.

And in real time, Audie, the FCC scrubbed the word "independent" from its website, just as the DOJ has there. In fact --

CORNISH: Let's watch and see if there's a line.

FISCHER: Totally.

CORNISH: A strikethrough on that.

FISCHER: Totally. And the reason I zoom out for you is because Todd Blanche is probably looking at what Chairman Carr did. He's looking at the Supreme Court upholding Trump's decision to fire two Democratic FTC commissioners at the start of his second term.

And he's probably saying to himself, what reason is there to try to act independently when clearly the precedent has been set that, if you go that route, you're not going to get the favor from the president and his support?

CORNISH: Yes. FISCHER: So, I think that, broadly speaking, it's actually more productive to look at what's the state of the agency independence within this administration than just to look at what's been happening over the past few years. For years at the DOJ, which has been that lack of independence.

CORNISH: Yes. It will come up. And I want to say, no, Trump does not wake up and say, Call the DOJ and say X. He does wake up and tweet and do a lot of truth, partial -- Truth Social posts.

For instance, he's obviously criticized the attorney general about James Comey, and Adam Schiff, and Letitia James, calling on them to be prosecuted.

And he's also, of course, gone after Jeanine Pirro for what he felt like, poor performance coming to the Reflecting Pool vandalism case, which fell apart spectacularly when they dismissed it themselves.

To Sarah's point, FOX News was asking Blanche, hey, already, you guys have some new guidance that says you can shield all the communication that Trump has, because it's executive privilege. And here's how he responded.

[06:05:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLANCHE: We have to let a president feel like he can have frank conversations with individuals and get honest feedback about running this country without the risk of it being used by him and others like what you just heard in a way that's inappropriate.

And so, this wasn't any novel legal concept. This wasn't us pushing the law beyond where it already was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: This side of the table, what are you hearing?

TIANA LOWE DOESCHER, POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, "THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER": The idea that the DOJ is independent is a norm. It is not part of the legal structure. And frankly, it isn't part of the lived experience of most Americans alive today. Right?

I'm old enough to remember Eric Holder saying that he was President Obama's wingman, right?

The real issue for critics of -- of Blanche is that the official policy of this administration is the unitary theory of the executive, and the Supreme Court upholds that. Right? The Supreme Court has made pretty --

CORNISH: Meaning the executive has a lot more power than you all are used to, and it means it's in charge of all the things under the executive.

DOESCHER: Correct.

CORNISH: The idea that there are these semi-independent kind of agencies --

DOESCHER: Yes.

CORNISH: -- is something they're trying to draw back on. You already look uncomfortable.

JOEL RUBIN, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: No, no. But I mean this is what we mean when we talk about weaponizing the judiciary and weaponizing the -- the rule of law in this country.

The president should not be even having any thoughts about directing the attorney general to use his or her powers --

CORNISH: So, if it's a norm, you like that norm?

RUBIN: -- to prosecute Americans. It's not just a norm. It's also in DOJ internal guidance. It's historic. It's post-Watergate reforms.

Because the idea that we'd have a president telling the attorney general to be his or her personal lawyer means that we undermine the rule of law in this country.

That's why the attorney general is not a secretary of justice. It's the attorney general. It's different.

CORNISH: What's the response to the voter who says, "I actually thought, through my taxes, etc., this was the top cop for me, not the top cop for the White House"?

DOESCHER: Frankly, inflation is the issue that put Trump in the White House. And it's the issue that is dragging down his polling. Right? Affordability, inflation, the -- I think --

CORNISH: You don't think they look at this and see a kind of corruption --

DOESCHER: I don't think that --

CORNISH: -- with the deal about weaponization fund and IRS and --?

DOESCHER: Donald Trump's been the main character of American politics for 11 years now.

CORNISH: OK.

DOESCHER: I don't think -- I think this is kind of the same old criticism.

And obviously, we all see, you know, if -- we're in the weeds of this every single day. We see the language changing on the website. And -- and I do care about the norm, right? In -- in a perfect world, I wish the Biden DOJ was not slow walking,

did not slow walk the investigation into Hunter. I wish you did not have Eric Cantor acting as President Obama's wingman.

CORNISH: Are you saying these are the same thing?

RUBIN: No.

DOESCHER: I think it's all slow rolling into the same precedent that I believe is negative.

CORNISH: OK.

DOESCHER: I don't think it's great. "Not great, Bob." But I don't think it's -- this is what voters think about.

RUBIN: I think it's fair to debate those points. But at the end of the day, the American people look at the Justice Department and attorney general and expect that individual to uphold the rule of law, not the whims of the president. And that's not the message that Blanche is giving.

CORNISH: All right. I want to talk about this more, because we are looking ahead to 2028, right, where the next person in the Oval Office will make these decisions.

Democrats are trying to give states that are more diverse, the first say in that primary process.

And then I want to turn to the Tupac trial against Duane "Keffe D." That's underway today. We're going to talk about what he said, what he didn't say about his alleged involvement in the murder of Tupac many years ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:13:11]

CORNISH: OK. We're following a story that's been developing overnight. President Trump scaling back joint military exercises with South Korea just hours before they were set to begin.

So, the president cited his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, saying the drills send a signal that is, quote, "inappropriate and hostile."

And he also called out Seoul's lack of assistance with Iran. He wrote, "While somewhat unrelated, I recently asked the President of South Korea if they would like to join us in the Denuclearization of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and they said, 'No thanks'."

So, where does that leave our relationship with a crucial ally in the region?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CHRISTOPHER HILL, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO SOUTH KOREA: This is

really worrying a lot of countries about our reliability. It's very important. If you're going to have an alliance, you'd better have exercises to go with it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: So, we've got Sabrina Singh, CNN global affairs commentator and former deputy Pentagon press secretary, here joining the chat.

You were telling me something interesting during the break, which is that North Korea has learned information from its participation with Russia in that war with Ukraine.

So, what makes these exercises particularly important?

SABRINA SINGH, CNN GLOBAL AFFAIRS COMMENTATOR: Well, these exercises -- I mean, there -- there is a history of these exercises.

We have been doing exercises with South Korea for about 70 years, since 1955. This exercise, Ulchi Freedom Shield, was to test our defensive capabilities. These exercises are always defensive in nature. So, it was to defend.

CORNISH: Here's what we would do if North Korea began to strike.

SINGH: That's right. And it's a simulation.

And also, we know that these soldiers that were sent from North Korea to Russia have learned critical information about drone warfare, which is the modern-day battlefield, and electromagnetic warfare. So, this was an exercise that was going to test all of this.

I don't know what it means exactly when Trump says we're going to have to scale it back. It started already. It's an 11-day exercise that's going to go on.

But I think, are we surprised that he's making any overtures to, you know, Kim Jong-un? No, but it is -- it is shocking, still.

[06:15:05]

CORNISH: Well, it's -- it's -- devil's advocate here. He's not just making overtures, right?

SINGH: Yes.

CORNISH: He's saying, look, maybe doing these exercises are creating a hostile tone. And we want to not be hostile.

SINGH: Yes.

CORNISH: We want to make sure North Korea doesn't push and take action.

South Korea said they hope "that the friendly relations between the leaders of North Korea and the U.S. would lead to meaningful talks between the two countries."

SINGH: Yes.

CORNISH: Maybe I bring in Joel here. Are we going to see talks again?

RUBIN: Oh, yes. Right. We're not going to see talks that resolve anything. And no, I doubt we're going to see talks.

It's a really strange dynamic, too, Audie, where, look, North Korea has been one very close ally of Iran for decades on end. And here we are now, essentially saying to South Korea, We're going to side with North Korea, because we want you to oppose Iran.

It's completely convoluted, makes no sense, and undermines our alliances both in the Far East as well as in the Middle East.

CORNISH: One of the things he said in his Truth Social post was also, "These exercises are not only costly" -- so, they're expensive.

SINGH: They are.

CORNISH: He claims, "much of the costs were paid for by the United States (as usual)."

Then, when we were talking to military experts, they were saying, like, actually, that's not how this works financially. Here's an example.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COL. CEDRIC LEIGHTON (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: South Korea is a critical ally for us. And oh, by the way, they pay for a large portion of those exercises. They also pay for the upkeep of U.S. troops in South Korea.

So, the idea that we're paying for everything there is absolutely false.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SINGH: You know, what's so interesting is at Shangri-La earlier this year, Secretary Pete Hegseth said South Korea is doing a burden sharing in terms of taking on expensive costs when it comes to exercises.

So, you know, I don't think Donald Trump exactly knew what he was saying in this. I will say, just on the point of South Korea --

CORNISH: Well, he did. He was trying to make a point, though. Right?

SINGH: Yes.

CORNISH: Which is, Hey, South Korea. You're not helping us out.

SINGH: But it goes against what Pete Hegseth said, which is like, actually, South Korea is one of our strongest allies and has been sharing the cost of a lot of these exercises.

But what I will say about what's so concerning about this is the messaging it sends to allies. In the region right now, we have pulled out our Patriot battery to -- to be rerouted to Iran.

CORNISH: And the fight over these Patriots. Yes.

SINGH: Exactly. We've pulled out a Marine unit to go to the war with Iran. And on top of that, now we're rerouting an aircraft carrier. The George Washington is going to backfill the Lincoln, which as we said before --

CORNISH: Is there a world where we were running out of resources and couldn't do the exercise?

SINGH: I think there is a concern --

CORNISH: OK.

SINGH: -- over how much these -- these exercises are meant to --

CORNISH: Yes, but do you know what I mean?

SINGH: Yes.

CORNISH: Like, ships in Venezuela. Ships here.

SINGH: It's a -- it's a cost to the force.

CORNISH: OK.

SINGH: I do think that's true.

CORNISH: Stay with us. We've got some other things I want to ask you about.

SINGH: Yes.

CORNISH: And then after the break on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk about how Democrats are going to change who votes first for 2028.

And, you know, a lot of history shows us that the early states really matter in those primaries. So, how is this shakeup going to change things?

And then we look at Republicans. Their midterm strategy, which includes what they are calling Trump-a-palooza, will be going all-in on Trump. Is that going to pay off?

And a live look at Cincinnati, Ohio. Very early good morning to you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:22:27]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KEN MARTIN, DNC CHAIR: OK. The motion passes. Congratulations! Congratulations, DNC!

History. History.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: OK. Democrats signed off on their new roadmap for the 2028 presidential election. It's going to begin with South Carolina.

The Democratic National Committee approved a revamped presidential primary calendar, and it pushed more racially diverse states to the front of the line.

Now, the plan calls for six primaries in six weeks: South Carolina first, followed by Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Michigan, and then Virginia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN: Our 2028 nominee, whoever they are, will have to earn the support across the full breadth of America. Every region, every demographic, every generation, every economic station in life. No shortcuts, no coronation.

You want to lead this party, you go earn it. Go and earn it. This early calendar reflects that diversity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: All right. Group chat is back.

So, some people are trying to talk about this as making it more diverse in terms of the voter base that is going to vote first. Right?

And I just want to show you. Population of Iowa, 87 percent white, 4.9 percent black, 8.1 percent Latino. Although I want to say, they voted for Obama three times.

And then, when you look at Nevada, 66 percent white, 31 percent Latino, and then 11 percent black.

What's the goal to your mind, Joel, of bringing the -- the calendar forward?

RUBIN: Yes.

CORNISH: Because this is something the average person does not care about. But how does that affect, come voting time?

RUBIN: So, I think, obviously, diverse voting blocs are part of it. But I actually believe it's more about geographic diversity and the party needing to get out of just the trap of always going to Iowa and New Hampshire first; and really engaging the Southwest and engaging Southern states proactively, rather than having them be an afterthought. I do also think --

CORNISH: So, all the money gets spent in North -- in New Hampshire.

RUBIN: Yes.

CORNISH: All the money gets spent in Iowa. Like, there's whole infrastructure, I swear, restaurants that just exist for every four years.

DOESCHER: Yes.

RUBIN: They're so accustomed to being the first in the nation. And really, they don't reflect the Democratic base or voting pool. And the Democrats need to make sure that we are talking to all these different audiences.

One thing to add to this, as well, is it does help more moderate candidates, going to South Carolina first. It is a more moderate state. It's going to --

CORNISH: More than Iowa?

RUBIN: Yes.

DOESCHER: I don't know if that's true.

RUBIN: Oh, yes. No, no. The Iowa electorate is actually very progressive on the Democratic side.

[06:25:03]

I think when you look at South Carolina, Kamala Harris should be very happy. Moderate candidates should be very happy.

Jim Clyburn, I remember famously, Senator Sanders in 2020 said, Well, he's not my kind of Democrat. So, there's going to be a lot of moderates are very happy.

CORNISH: So, it'll be a challenge to that progressive wing.

RUBIN: Yes.

CORNISH: Let me play for you two takes. First from Joe Gruters -- actually, no. First from Governor Andy Beshear, OK, of Kentucky, to our point about Southern states. Here's how he responded to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): I'm happy that there are two Southern states in South Carolina and Virginia, because if the Democratic Party is going to be competitive in the future, we have to be competitive in places like Kentucky, in places like the South.

We have scrapped our way back to the table. And I believe that -- that the DNC saw the importance of -- of the South. (END VIDEO CLIP)

CORNISH: What do you think of the sake of the South?

DOESCHER: Yes. Look, black voters saved the party and the country from socialism in 2020. And I think the gamble from Chuck Schumer and Jim Clyburn is that they'll do it again in 2028. Right?

Let's rewind to 2020. Beyond the fact that Iowa should have -- should lose the right based on merit alone. We all remember how disastrous, like, the actual caucusing was.

CORNISH: Yes. I'm going to put that up on the screen, while you're talking: all the problems they had in 2020.

DOESCHER: It was -- it was a disaster. No one actually knew who won for many weeks after, you know.

But crucially, you know, going back, Bernie wins Iowa, Bernie wins New Hampshire, Bernie wins Nevada. Joe Biden looks like a corpse dead in the water until black voters save him in South Carolina. And that changes the whole ballgame.

CORNISH: But the Iowa Republican Party chair first said the Democratic Party hates Iowa. And lots of people point out Republicans will be first in Iowa still, and they will be spending that time there.

SINGH: Well, I also think I mean, they did ratify the calendar, but Iowa and New Hampshire still have until September to finalize their own -- their own rules.

CORNISH: But you can punish them if they do.

SINGH: And they can -- they can be punished. They -- they -- and they could -- they might, but they still -- there could be -- in September, there could be an issue where these states say, actually, we're not going to abide by this calendar.

I do think -- I do think to both of your points, you know, this is reflective of the changing electorate. I think this is a good thing that we're letting, you know, states in the South go first.

I don't necessarily agree that this means that you're going to get a moderate candidate in South Carolina. I think from 2020 to, you know, when we have this election in 2028, things are just changing. So, I think it's going to be a very competitive primary field, and we're just going to have see who --

CORNISH: They also want places like Texas in play, right, where Talarico -- SINGH: Yes.

DOESCHER: -- is up against Ken Paxton.

FISCHER: And I'm also thinking about Nevada, because organized labor is another huge issue here. SINGH: Yes.

FISCHER: You want to stress-test candidates earlier amongst a more diverse set of people. And that's not just based off of demographic lines, but it's also socioeconomic lines.

So, figuring out who does organized labor take to earlier on in the primary could help a more moderate candidate.

CORNISH: I was going to say the preoccupation around the race part of it is a little silly, because you definitely, like, I want to know about the young Latino men of Nevada.

DOESCHER: Absolutely.

CORNISH: Right? I want to know about the labor groups in Nevada. I want to know about the older voters in South Carolina. Like, there's actually a different mix.

And I don't know if it precludes a white rural voter that Iowa would have presented. Those groups still exist.

RUBIN: This is really good. Maybe counter some of the race orthodoxies that the Democratic Party tends to sort of --

CORNISH: Adhere to.

RUBIN: -- rely upon, adhere to, and stereotype ourselves about. You know, there's a lot of diversity in thought in the Democratic Party. I really value the idea of regional diversity getting in the game now.

CORNISH: OK. We say that now until we start fighting. OK? When New Hampshire and Iowa --

RUBIN: More power.

CORNISH: -- really get it going.

So, all right. Straight ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, we're going to talk about whether or not we're looking at what could have been an avoidable political firestorm. The commander of the Iran War actually toured the USS Abraham Lincoln. And this came after the president's remarks about its deployment.

Plus, Jared Kushner sits down with Benjamin Netanyahu right now, coming off the heels of his meeting with Hamas.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:30:00]