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Erin Burnett Outfront

GOP Sen. Cassidy Backs Blanche Despite Concerns About "Poor Judgment"; Trump White House Renews Effort To Remove Governor Lisa Cook; Jobs Report Shows Decline As Trump Says U.S. Is In "Golden Age"; Sources: Trump's Top General Quietly Looking For Iran Off-Ramp. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired August 07, 2026 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:17]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next:

Breaking news, we're standing by for a vote on Trump's attorney general, Todd Blanche. That vote expected to take place tonight after a key Republican announced he will now support Blanche despite having serious concerns about him.

Plus, refusing to back down. Trump moving ahead with a new plan to fire Fed Governor Lisa Cook. The Supreme Court shot down his first attempt. Will they this time?

And looking for an off-ramp. CNN with new reporting that Trump's top general is looking for a way to end Trump's war with Iran.

Let's go OUTFRONT.

(MUSIC)

KEILAR: Good evening. I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Erin Burnett.

OUTFRONT tonight, breaking news. Any moment now, Todd Blanche could be confirmed as Trump's attorney general. The Senate is expected to vote shortly and approve the nomination, thanks in large part to Republican Senator Bill Cassidy getting in line today after initially being a holdout on giving President Trump's former personal attorney the country's highest law enforcement job.

Today, Cassidy saying he would support Blanche despite having deep concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BILL CASSIDY (R-LA): Mr. Blanche showed poor judgment and approving the anti-weaponization slush fund and exempting the president from IRS audits. I'm particularly concerned about episodes of apparent lawfare. DOJ bringing suits against political enemies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Yet Cassidy justified his support by citing what former Attorney General Bill Barr recently said about Blanche.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CASSIDY: Because of his previous attorney-client relationship with President Trump, Mr. Blanche will be precisely the person to push back on President Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Pushback on President Trump.

Well, so far, we haven't seen evidence of that. Blanche even continues to give oxygen to Trump's lies that he won the 2020 election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, ACTING ATTORNEY GENERAL: There's a ton of evidence that the election was rigged. We have multiple investigations going on in Arizona, in Georgia -- in Fulton County, Georgia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Again, to be clear, there's no evidence the election was rigged.

Cassidy didn't need to support Blanche to save his Senate career. To be clear, he's already out of that job, ousted in his Republican primary by a challenger endorsed by President Trump.

When Blanche is officially confirmed, he will take on the top legal priorities of the administration, likely to include ensuring that Trump gets his White House ballroom because that's now a big legal issue. A D.C. circuit court ruling today that construction of that ballroom is unlawful. The judge is writing each president is a temporary tenant, not the owner of the White House and its executive resident.

Trump says he's appealing and if you're wondering whether Blanche will eagerly fight that fight or perhaps push back, as Senator Cassidy said he's better positioned to do as a confirmed A.G., look at what he wrote in a court filing related to the ballroom back in April.

It reads, "Because it is Donald J. Trump, a highly successful real estate developer who has abilities that others don't, especially those who assume the office of president, this frivolous and meritless lawsuit was filed. Again, it's called Trump derangement syndrome," he wrote.

Kristen Holmes is OUTFRONT live at the White House for us.

Kristen, I know that you've been talking to sources there. What's the latest thinking on Trump's promise to appeal this ballroom case?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, we also just heard from President Trump himself just seconds ago, responding yet again on Truth Social, just showing you how fixated he is on this issue of the ballroom.

He actually addressed the quote that you put out there on the screen just a moment ago about the court saying that he is a tenant in the White House, and he says directly, "each president or we are not tenants. We are presidents elected by the people of the United States Senate of America and we have rights including the rights to fix, renovate, secure, protect and beautify the White House grounds which have been built and rebuilt, renovated and renovated" goes on, goes on, goes on.

Now the one thing I will point out here is what he says at the very bottom, which is that he is painting this as a national security threat, and that's what he did earlier too. So at least this gives us some idea of how they are trying to characterize this as they move forward.

And I talked to a number of sources about what exactly is Plan B here because you're looking at the White House. It has a giant gaping hole. Right now, this court is saying that they have to halt construction. They're giving them two weeks to actually do the appeal, so it will continue for that.

So, what are you guys going to do if they say you have to stop construction? If they say the project is over? And I am told by these White House officials that they have been advised by top legal advisors to the White House that they're in a good position, that they feel confident that the Supreme Court will not only take the case up, because of course that's the big question, are they actually going to even take this up?

[19:05:04]

But that they'll rule in favor of President Trump when it comes to the ballroom.

Now, no one has been able to tell me why, what exactly the legal reasoning is for this confidence, but that is what they feel tonight going into this. And it clearly looks as though at least part of that argument is going to be over this idea that not completing the ballroom is some kind of national security threat.

KEILAR: Yeah, perhaps that is the tip there.

Kristen Holmes, thank you so much for that report.

OUTFRONT now, Congressman Robert Garcia. He's the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee.

And, Congressman, I do want to get to Kristen's reporting there on the ballroom in a moment.

First though, I want to ask you about Todd Blanch. Senator Cassidy said today, Blanche isn't the perfect choice for A.G., but he said an alternative acting A.G. could be worse. What's your reaction?

REP. ROBERT GARCIA (D-CA): I mean, that's B.S. Todd Blanche's -- should not be confirmed. He's not qualified. And the fact that he was Donald Trump's personal lawyer, I think is terrifying and it should be for the American public.

This is a person that, by the way, has helped weaponize the DOJ for his former client. This is the same person that has not released half of the Epstein files, about three million documents. The same person that puts survivors in danger by their own account by releasing their personal information in a very botched release of the -- of the limited files it did put out.

And time and time again, Todd Blanche has also been made clear that he's not willing to stand up to election deniers. He should not be leading the Department of Justice. And the fact that the president's former lawyer is now at the top and will be at the top of the DOJ because of this vote is quite frankly both terrifying, but it's shameful. This is a horrific moment for the country.

And I think it's really unfortunate that Cassidy gave in, that Cornyn didn't stand up, that Thom Tillis didn't stand up. And so, again, day for the country.

KEILAR: Alaska Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski is a nay, was a nay, cited the weaponization fund in her decision to vote against Blanche. She said it could be brought back if Blanche is confirmed. What recourse does Congress have if the fund is revived?

GARCIA: Well, we're going to have to keep going back to the courts. I mean, the court's been pretty clear on the fund, and yet Donald Trump essentially -- he's making no commitment, right? I mean, you hear his own words.

Todd Blanche is squishy on it. He keeps saying he might bring it back. There's reports that he's committed to bringing that fund back. And let's not forget what it's for. This is so that Donald Trump can give out money, American taxpayer funds to traitors, to people that attack the Capitol, to insurrectionists, and to God knows who else.

This is the same president that wants to use the DOJ and other agencies to pay himself back to cancel audits on him and his companies and his family. And so, he's going to continue to weaponize the DOJ, and it's clear that Todd Blanche has no interest in being a check on the president.

And I disagree with former A.G. Barr. In fact, I think Todd Blanche is the absolute worst person you could put at the top of the DOJ because of his relationship with President Trump.

And so, we're going to continue to investigate, call out, but these senators need to grow a spine and actually stand up to the president.

KEILAR: You've led the charge to release the Epstein files. Last month, the Oversight Committee interviewed Kathy Ruemmler, formerly White House counsel to President Obama. She had had close ties to Jeffrey Epstein after his 2008 plea deal that made him a registered sex offender. She's denied knowledge of Epstein's crimes, but after her ties to Epstein became public, she had announced in February she'd resign by June as the chief legal officer at Goldman Sachs.

She's still at Goldman Sachs as an advisor, and you've sent this letter to CEO David Solomon to sever ties with her.

Why do you think they haven't done as they originally planned to do so?

GARCIA: Well, that's the question that we have. Why hasn't Goldman actually severed all its ties with Kathy Ruemmler, who clearly had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein that went beyond being casual? I mean, they were close friends.

The communications they had, she knew he'd already been convicted of sexual crimes and continued this relationship. She's one of the people that he talked to, one of the last people he talked to before he passed. She was giving him advice, advice, financial advice. He was buying her all these lavish gifts.

And so why hasn't Goldman, who I think tries to pride themselves to be a respectable organization and company, why do they continue to pay her and employ her? And that is a question that Goldman needs to answer to the American public and to their employees.

KEILAR: Today, a divided federal appeals court ruled that Trump is unlawfully constructing his new ballroom at the White House. We just covered this in a report with Kristen Holmes. A ruling said Congress should decide on the construction, not the president, and Trump said he's going to appeal. Moments ago, he said on social media, "This decision, made after much of the work has been done and paid for, is a national security threat at the highest level. It is also a national disgrace."

[19:10:00]

I wonder what you think of him evoking this idea of a national security threat. But also, whatever happens here, there is a massive construction project underway at the White House. Something's going to have to be done. The East Wing is demolished. What will Democrats do? I mean, what will Congress do?

GARCIA: Well, first, I think we signed an amicus brief, by the way, to this case. I'm really glad the judge, the court did the right thing here. The judges did the right thing.

But let's be really clear what Donald Trump is trying to do. He is trying to destroy Washington, D.C., whether it's the ballroom, whether it's the Kennedy Center, what he's trying to build in the arch that he has said is to himself, the reflecting pool. He's obsessed with either trying to construct replicas or monuments to himself and destroying what's really history in American history.

As it relates to the ballroom, he should have never touched it. The authority to make those kinds of changes rests with the Congress and the fact that we have this huge open hole, I don't buy the national security argument because he hasn't made the argument to the Congress. So, until he does so, we're going to continue to push and get the courts to stop it.

As for what should happen, look, I think I think we should have a process that he should have done from day one, which is getting the best architects, preservationist historians actually together to actually figure out what we can do expand the current East Wing of the White House. And quite frankly, as it relates to the current situation, we should try to rebuild it back to what it was, not some huge ballroom that nobody asked for.

KEILAR: Yeah, I know you said he's trying to destroy it. He has made it clear, I think, that he thinks he is trying to improve it. That is certainly up for debate.

Congressman Garcia, appreciate you being here. Thank you.

OUTFRONT next, Trump putting Jeanine Pirro on notice tonight, telling her to revisit her decision to drop those reflecting pool vandalism cases.

Plus, in a new interview, Trump painting an extremely rosy picture of the economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We're really -- we are literally in the golden age of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: But new numbers from his own Labor Department do not back that up.

And a story that you'll see first on OUTFRONT. Our Ed Lavandera is going to take you inside a driverless truck that could very soon be on a road next to you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We're going to take a drive?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to take a drive.

LAVANDERA: None of us are driving apparently.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, none of us are driving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:16:53]

KEILAR: Breaking news, President Trump renewing his effort to fire Lisa Cook from the Federal Reserve. CNN just learning Cook received a letter from the White House this week saying there's, quote, "sufficient reason to believe that you have made false statements on one or more mortgage agreements." The letter demanded Cook respond within three weeks.

She's not charged with any crimes and denies the allegations. Trump's first attempt to fire her a year ago was rejected by the Supreme Court. They said that Cook was not given the opportunity to address the Trump administration's accusations of mortgage fraud when Trump announced her firing.

OUTFRONT now is Ryan Goodman, our legal analyst.

So, Ryan, you say this latest move by Trump to fire Cook runs afoul of how the court said a Fed official could be removed legally. Why is that?

RYAN GOODMAN, FORMER SPECIAL COUNSEL AT DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE: So Chief Justice Roberts, in the majority opinion, puts out a framework, and he basically says for the majority that the president cannot remove somebody unless it's for cause. The for cause has to have a nexus, meaning a connection to their official duties.

And in fact, basically is a warning to the president by saying that the reason must not be just in order to find a more congenial replacement. And from everything that's in the record, it looks like it's that motive on the part of the president.

So, the court is essentially setting out the framework that the lower courts will apply in adjudicating if she's ever removed.

KEILAR: Yeah, I mean, to that point, Cook has said that Trump's attempt to fire her is about this pressure campaign to get the Fed to lower rates, right? And Trump's recently been attacking the Fed's Board of Governors, notably not his new Fed chair, over the refusal to lower rates, but let's listen to some of what he's said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He's got a board that's very political.

He's got a board. And it's a political board, and they want to keep rates up.

He's got a board, and the board members are very political.

You need the consent of some people that have perhaps bad attentions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Are those statements legally useful to Cook as she tries to fend off this attempt to remove her?

GOODMAN: Absolutely. I'm certain that if the president did try to remove her that her lawyers would cite those statements. The point would be that look at this, the president has laid out his motive. His motive is about how she's voting on the board in terms of monetary policy, and that's why he's trying to find a more congenial replacement.

And I think it would just add it to a pattern of conduct that the president went after the former chair, Jerome Powell. Similarly, trying to go after him with the weaponization of criminal law. And in fact, a district court judge, the chief judge of the D.C. District Court, quashed a subpoena against Jerome Powell, saying that it was a pretext. It was just trying to push him or punish him in order to align his monetary policy decisions with the president's preferences. So those are the very kinds of statements that I think will hurt the president.

Now, admittedly, in their statements, he never actually mentions Ms. Cook by name. The president did mention Jerome Powell by name, so she's missing that part of it, but I think they would put that together. Then they would ask the court to give them the ability to seek information in terms of how did this idea that she has a mortgage problem ever come about?

[19:20:01]

Was it a fishing expedition on the part of the president, and Bill Pulte, as the head of that particular agency, to try to find something on her?

There would be more evidence that she would have. So, I think she really would walk into court with a very strong hand.

KEILAR: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito told "The Wall Street Journal" that he is staying on the court for another term. Alito is notably 76 years old. How are you seeing this? How could that decision affect the court, and do you think that he might consider leaving after that next term while Trump is still in office?

GOODMAN: So, it's important to the court in the sense that if he stays on as a very reliable vote for the president and the White House policies for the next year and the next term, he's shown himself to be that way. He's often even in the dissent of one or two people in favor of White House policy when the supermajority of the court goes the other direction.

I could imagine in his calculation he'll still decide to step down before the end of President Trump's term. We know in history some of the Supreme Court justices make those kinds of moves. And I'll just be candid in my own estimation. I've seen so many of his decisions are very ideological. I'm not saying they're politically partisan, but they're ideological.

And he might make the calculation that he thinks it's just better to step down when there's a Republican president in the White House rather than risk the likelihood that there's a Democratic president in the White House over the next four-year period.

So, he would choose that as a time to potentially hand it in. Many people speculated that he would have done it this summer already, but it looks like he's holding off.

KEILAR: Yeah. We'll have to see after this next term.

Ryan Goodman, thank you so much.

And OUTFRONT next, is Trump in denial about his popularity?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They're not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Really?

Plus, new reporting tonight that Trump's top general is looking for an off-ramp so that Trump can end his war with Iran.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:26:27]

KEILAR: Tonight, another major warning sign for the economy under President Trump. The Labor Department just announcing that the U.S. economy lost 23,000 jobs last month. It was expected to gain about 95,000. And the participation rate for the U.S. workforce is also at its lowest point since 2021.

But President Trump is saying this is a brand new, saying this, I should say, in a brand new interview with "Punchbowl News".

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Our country right now is doing better than it's ever done. You know, when I see polls on the economy, I should have -- I should have 150 percent, not 100 percent, because we have the greatest -- this is the golden age of America. What's being built now in this country has never, ever been built.

And we're really, we are literally in the golden age of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Everyone is here with me now.

Gretchen, how are Americans experiencing this golden age?

GRETCHEN CARLSON, FORMER FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Yeah, it's a good question, Brianna, because in 2026 the numbers apparently still do not lie. And the fact of the matter is, as well as that job report that came out today, the wage growth also slid year to year by 3.2 percent. And when you compare that to inflation continuing to go up specifically because of the Iranian war, what does that mean for the average American? That means life becomes more expensive for the average American.

Now, Trump may point to the fact that the stock market didn't seem to slip today and has been churning along. The problem, though, is that the majority of Americans are not invested in the stock market. And so, what they're feeling about the economy and the real true numbers are what they feel when they go to the gas pump and when they go to the grocery store. And for the average American, it's simply a higher price.

KEILAR: Xochitl, it was really interesting. On Fox Business today, you heard some voices emphasizing positives that they saw in the jobs report. But viewers also heard it described like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A disappointing jobs report.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've had three months now of real weakness in the job market.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I never like to see a report where we're not adding something and we're losing jobs. So, this was not a great report.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Disappointing, weakness, not great. So, you're hearing that.

And I wonder if Republicans don't acknowledge the economic reality that Americans are facing, how difficult is it for them in the midterm, Xochitl?

XOCHITL HINOJOSA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's very difficult and they should just learn from Joe Biden, who had his circumstance where the economy and the jobs numbers were improving, but yet the American people did not feel it and Democrats lost everything. And this is why we're at where we're at now.

One of the things is that if Republicans don't wake up soon, they're not only going to lose in November, but it is going to be a complete blue wave. Everything has shown us that American people care about the economy. They care about higher costs. This is why they elected Donald Trump, and this is why they have elected Republicans, and Republicans were not able to deliver for them.

And so, if they cannot deliver and the economy doesn't get better just in a few short weeks, it is very clear that Democrats will be elected in November.

KEILAR: I mean, Lulu, do Republicans have time to wake up? Can they if Trump does not turn at least the messaging on the economy around, or is it too late?

LULU GARCIA-NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It's too late. And I also think he's shown himself incapable of turning the messaging around. I mean, he wants to talk about the ballroom.

[19:30:01]

He wants to talk about all these other things that he is building in Washington, D.C., and he is very uninterested in actually facing reality.

And what the job reports actually does is reflect that reality. I mean, if you talk to people who are looking for jobs, young people, people who are in mid-career, it is so hard for them to break into the job market. What you're seeing is a job market at the moment where not a lot of people are being fired, but very few people are being hired. And on top of that, everything is sort of stuck and frozen in place, and there's a lot of uncertainty, especially with A.I., et cetera, et cetera.

So, you know, it is simply reflecting what people's lived experiences.

KEILAR: Yeah, feeling a little bit stagnant.

So, Gretchen, during that same interview, the president, he had a lot of praise for himself. He told Jake Sherman this about Republican voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The question is, will they vote? Because a lot of them are very angry at Republicans, to be honest with you.

INTERVIEWER: Why?

TRUMP: I don't know. I mean, they're angry at Republicans, but they're not angry at me.

INTERVIEWER: It's an interesting thing, but why?

TRUMP: They're not angry at me, but they are angry at Republicans.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Is he Gretchen out of touch with where voters are?

CARLSON: I think so. I mean, all you have to do is look at the recent poll that came out yesterday and today that said that he had non- college voters by 13 points in the last election in 2024 and now he's underwater with that same group of people, the MAGA base, 19 minus -- 19 points. I mean, it's a huge swing. He was already out of touch with many college voters, college people who had gone to college voters.

So, I think that this is not his real reality. But then again, this is not something that I would ever expect Trump to admit to. I mean, Trump is not going to admit that he's down in the polls or that this has anything to do with him, and that's why he's going to blame it on Republicans and rest assured, if the midterms are bad for Republicans, he will say it was because he was not on the ballot.

KEILAR: I mean, we already sort of hear some of that, Lulu, that he's putting it out there. And if he continues to believe or at least certainly project that voters are loving the job that he's doing as president. How difficult does that make it for Republicans to draw some contrast and maybe salvage some of these tough races? GARCIA-NAVARRO: I mean, if you talk to Republicans, which you do, you know that they are tearing their hair out. I mean, they are absolutely apoplectic. They have tried to get President Trump on message.

He has completely stepped on that message over and over again. He's also made it impossible for them to separate from him because they actually do need his base to show up for them. But then they can't actually go out and try and attract new voters because he's like a lodestone around their neck. So, they're in many ways in an impossible situation.

And I think that, you know, as you look at the midterms, it's really hard for Republicans. The only savings grace that they have is that I wouldn't say the Democratic Party is like some shining light here. And I'll also say that the way that things have worked out with redistricting, et cetera, et cetera, it means that there aren't that many seats that are in place.

So, ultimately, it's going to have to be not just a blue wave, a blue tidal wave in order to sort of get past some of these structural things.

KEILAR: Yeah, I mean, Xochitl, to Lulu's point about Democrats, there are warnings for your party, too, tonight. This is Hillary Clinton saying that Republicans may be on to something when it comes to their messaging for the midterms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: The Republican messaging is communist, socialist. It's going to be a very effective attack. And so people on the left have to be prepared to answer that and to be effective in answering it.

I assume that they have reason to believe that it's effective or they wouldn't be beating the drum on it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: It's an effective attack, she says. Is she right, Xochitl?

HINOJOSA: Well, I think in this midterm election, it is not an effective attack because it is just a distraction. It is something that at this point in the game, instead of talking to the American people about how they're going to improve their lives, they are taking shots at the Democratic Party and in the vast majority of districts -- in tough districts across the country, it is Democrats or moderate Democrats running in these races.

Where I think that she is actually right is in the presidential when you're going to probably have about 20 people running for president all trying to the left for to get the votes in the first few primary states and that is where I think Democrats need to be very careful that they are not going too far to the left because at the end of the day, they need to win a certain amount of electoral votes in moderate battleground states. [19:35:02]

It's not the primary states that is going to get them there. It's the moderate battleground states.

KEILAR: Gretchen, do you think it is affected though somewhat in the midterms here?

CARLSON: I actually applaud Hillary Clinton for being honest in that assessment because I think that a lot of Democratic sources are telling me that they are very worried about this sort of socialistic trend that we've seen specifically in New York City and in Michigan. And I think when people hear the word socialism, it's a turnoff, just as some people have that same reaction when they hear the word MAGA on the other side.

So, I do think that the Democratic Party needs to get some leadership very quickly and figure out how to message to specifically independents and the more moderate Democrats to bring them back into the fold.

KEILAR: Gretchen, Xochitl, Lulu, thank you to all of you for the conversation. I really appreciate it.

And OUTFRONT next, is Putin about to test Trump? New intel says the Russian president may try and push Trump into another war.

Plus --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: What do you tell people who don't like the idea of being next to a massive truck like this with no driver inside?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We'll take you inside. Really, Ed will take you inside what's being called the truck of the future. But not everyone is on board with this new technology.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:41:04]

KEILAR: Breaking news, an off-ramp with Iran. That is what President Trump's top general is looking for tonight. CNN learning Joint Chiefs Chairman General Dan Caine is warning top Trump officials that escalating the war could backfire and that airstrikes alone are unlikely to get Trump what he wants.

This comes as the U.S. is already dangerously low on some of the critical missile defenses that it would need if Iran retaliates.

OUTFRONT now, John Bolton, former national security adviser to President Trump and former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. I should note he is not able to discuss the classified information case against him, which he pled guilty to in June.

Ambassador Bolton, this news about looking for an off-ramp, is that what is needed right now?

AMBASSADOR JOHN BOLTON, FORMER TRUMP NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Well, I'd be cautious about exactly what Cain is looking for. He may just be looking for alternatives to the utter vacuum and strategy that we now see. That the on-again, off-again ceasefire, memorandum of understanding, threats of retaliation have done nothing for the past several months to advance whatever Trump's objective is, which still has not been made clear.

I think that there is a route here that Trump could follow. He doesn't seem to be interested in it, but I would keep the blockade against Iran and use force if necessary to open the Gulf Arab side of the Strait of Hormuz to let Gulf Arab oil out. I think that's doable.

I think trying to negotiate with the government of Iran is fruitless because I don't think there is a functioning government of Iran that can give a commitment that's worth anything. So, in that circumstance, looking for an off-ramp really requires political direction. It's not a military call as such.

KEILAR: Yeah, you've said that. In an op-ed in "The Washington Post", you talk a little bit about that. that Iran, you say, is so fractured that the people the Trump team is negotiating with may not actually have the power to deliver a deal.

How does the U.S. navigate that?

BOLTON: Well, I don't think you do navigate it. It's a question of deciding what your objective is. And if anybody thinks that the Revolutionary Guard in Iran is looking for compromise. The only thing they're looking for and the reason they're happy to go with this idea of a partial opening of the strait is to get Iranian oil out into global markets and get revenue coming in so that they can pay the Quds for us, they can pay the Basij militia, they can pay their other components. That's an argument to keep the blockade in place.

I think we've got extraordinary economic pressure that we can apply during the time when I hope the Pentagon is doing everything it can to increase production and availability of missile defense systems.

There's a question here to look at some point, which is how is it over the last five years nobody thought of this before? But in the meantime, I think it's a mistake to try and walk away from this and leave Iran in a superior political position.

The raids that we conducted in March and April did enormous damage to Iran's military-industrial complex. It's going to take them years to repair the damage, so why we're willing to give a really battered regime like that hegemony over the Strait of Hormuz I do not understand.

KEILAR: What are the options, though, when you're talking about munitions being where they are? We're talking about off-ramps or whether you talk about alternatives here.

CNN reporting has the military going through nearly 80 percent of its THAAD inventory and 50 percent of its Patriots. How much does that limit what Trump can do here?

BOLTON: Well, I'd like to know more about exactly what inventory we're talking about, whether that means worldwide or there are other possibilities to divert Patriots from other locations where they're not needed at the moment.

[19:45:09]

That's not a happy alternative, but remember, the real security here is not defeating the enemy ballistic missiles as they move into their terminal phase over their targets. The real way to do this is to destroy the missile launchers inside Iran, so that there are a lot of extra missiles lying around and no place for them to be launched from.

That's another way to look at how you approach the threat that Iran is posing. And remember, if this threat is allowed to remain in power, which is the direction Trump is moving in, it is simply a matter of time before the threat grows worse, not only from ballistic missiles with conventional weapons, but the next time possibly ballistic missiles with nuclear weapons.

KEILAR: U.S. intelligence now warns that Vladimir Putin could attack a NATO country to test whether the alliance and Trump specifically would respond. That, of course, is happening as we have this reporting about the munitions. Does Putin look at the U.S. bogged down in Iran with this missile defense issue and see that this may be his moment to strike.

BOLTON: Well, I think he is watching the Trump administration in Iran very carefully. And what he smells is fear, the fear that Trump is in a situation where he doesn't have a ready solution to the problem of gasoline prices at the pump for American consumers.

And in the weeks and months before an election, that may well be a place where Putin could try to put pressure on another NATO country.

But bear in mind, if Russia had the resources to really undertake a major military move, you have to ask, why hasn't he done it in Ukraine in the last four years to get out of the gridlock that's destroying the Russian military day by day by day? A war of attrition that Russia thought it could win. that it's now the Ukrainian side that's attriting, the Russian side.

I'd like to know where these extra military assets are that the Russians could use to threaten NATO countries. As I say, if Putin had extra military assets, it's hard to understand why he didn't deploy them in Ukraine years ago.

KEILAR: Ambassador Bolton, great to have you. Thank you so much.

BOLTON: Thank you. KEILAR: And Putin isn't just threatening NATO. He's dramatically escalating attacks inside of Ukraine, ramping up drone and missile attacks as Ukraine is running dangerously low on the defenses it needs to stop them.

Fred Pleitgen is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Russian drones allegedly hitting a warehouse in Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, as well as a railway facility Moscow claims is linked to Ukraine's military. Russia's army is drastically expanding drone strike on Ukraine's logistics and infrastructure.

In Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin trying to regain battlefield momentum, shaking up his general staff. for the first time ever, appointing a coordinator for drone warfare.

"Everybody knows well that we decided to create a new branch of the armed forces, the Unmanned Systems Forces," he says. The goal was to find a person who had proven himself in the best possible way in this role. Putin also ramping up missile strikes, a recent nighttime aerial blitz targeting Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, killing 17 people and destroying several warehouses.

Ukraine's president saying a shortage of U.S.-made Patriot interceptors, exacerbated by extensive U.S. Patriot use during President Trump's war against Iran, has seriously weakened Ukraine's ability to defend against ballistic missiles.

"Since the beginning of 2026," Zelenskyy said at a meeting with his general staff, "Ukraine started receiving just a third of the anti- ballistic missiles."

Russia's expanded air campaign comes just as Ukraine believed it was turning the tide in the four-and-a-half-year war. Near daily Ukrainian long distance drone attacks against Russian energy sites and Russia's largest online retailer have taken a toll, Moscow acknowledges.

Russian law severely restricts media from showing the aftermath of Ukrainian drone strikes. But these are some of the places where Kyiv's drones have hit energy sites and warehouses in just the past five days.

PLEITGEN: The war certainly feels a lot closer to home for many Russians these days. A lot of them, quite frankly, are concerned about their safety amid the ongoing Ukrainian drone attacks. But there is also big fear about the state of this country's economy and whether it could sustain long-term damage.

[19:50:00]

Thousands of small Russian businesses use online retailer Wildberries for sales. And those sales have often dipped so dramatically, some pickup points are shutting down, one owner says. In order to break even, we need to make 250,000 rubles in profits, but now we don't do it, he says. The last month has been entirely loss-making.

But so far, the Kremlin is showing no sign of changing course, instead vowing to continue what it still called its special military operation in Ukraine.

Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Moscow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: And next, a story that you'll see first on OUTFRONT. Our Ed Lavandera takes us for a ride inside a driverless truck that's rewriting the rules of the road.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: Tonight, driverless trucks are an existential threat. That is what the California Teamsters Union is calling self-driving trucks in a lawsuit alleging Governor Gavin Newsom's administration mishandled the rollout and could put millions of lives at risk.

[19:55:09]

So how safe are driverless trucks?

Ed Lavandera is OUTFRONT.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): We are climbing into the cabin of a 55,000-pound time machine, and the question at the heart of the ride we're about to take is how far into the future are we really going?

LAVANDERA: So, we're going to take a drive?

TERRY WALKER, DRIVER: We're going to take a drive.

JENS HOLTINGER, CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER, VOLVO GROUP: That's right.

LAVANDERA: None of us are driving, apparently.

(LAUGHTER)

HOLTINGER: No, none of us are driving.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): This trailer rig was built by Volvo. And a company called Aurora develops the computer system which drives the vehicle.

HOLTINGER: There is double steering system.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Inside the cabin with me is Jens Holtinger. He's Volvo's chief technology officer. And in the safety driver's seat, but not touching the steering wheel, is Terry Walker.

We've been invited to take a test drive in this autonomous truck down Interstate 45 south of Dallas. The steering wheel has a jittery start as it pulls out of the truck yard, but it quickly settles down.

HOLTINGER: So what you see here is actually what the vehicle is seeing. So vehicle is in the constant surveillance.

LAVANDERA: Now we're on the interstate. Starting to pick up some speed.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The multiple cameras and radar systems detect all the cars and objects around the truck. They tell me the Volvo truck is designed to cruise in the right lane at 10 miles per hour under the speed limit.

LAVANDERA: Oh, this is interesting. They just switched lanes. There's a police officer has someone pulled over.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): With good weather and long open highways, Texas has become ground zero for several companies testing and refining autonomous trucks.

But more of these trucks are expected to be on the highways in the years ahead without safety guides in the driver's seat.

As we cruise down the road, there's debris on the highway. The truck changes lanes.

LAVANDERA: Oh, it's picking up the tire debris on the road. You see it?

WALKER: So now it's going to straddle it out.

LAVANDERA: So it was navigating between the tire debris on the road?

WALKER: Yes.

LAVANDERA: So, here's a truck with its hazards on. We've slowed down to about 45 miles an hour.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): This time the Volvo truck changes lanes and passes the slower rig.

LAVANDERA: What do you tell people who don't like the idea of being next to a massive truck like this with no driver inside?

HOLTINGER; It's a driver that has constant surveillance, 360 degrees, 500 meters ahead, never gets tired, never gets distracted. We are quite confident that we have a very safe setup.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): That is a concern for people like Michael Perez with the Teamsters Union representing drivers in Texas.

LAVANDERA: Do you view these trucks as a threat or do you view them as a benefit?

MICHAEL PEREZ, BUSINESS AGENT, TEAMSTERS LOCAL 745: I do look at them as a threat. LAVANDERA (voice-over): We met Perez at his union hall in Dallas. For

22 years, he drove short haul distances, he worries autonomous trucks will put lots of people out of work, and he's skeptical these trucks are as safe as the companies claim.

PEREZ: Humans and especially trained CDL truck drivers, they make decisions in real time where a machine is all computerized, and we feel that the technology is not there for them to be safe and be able to make decisions the way a human can.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Volvo says it plans to deploy at least 300 of these trucks without a safety driver early next year.

We put the concerns to some of the top executives at Volvo and Aurora.

CHRIS URMSON, CEO AND CHAIRMAN, AURORA: I really think if you are a truck driver today, you're going to be able to retire a truck driver. Skepticism is rational.

This is something new. It is game changing and people should have questions. The fact that it can operate indefinitely and it doesn't get distracted, it doesn't get confused, it doesn't get tired. means that it's paying attention to everything around it, and it's really going to be a big benefit in driving those accidents towards zero over time.

LAVANDERA: So, you think it's a fundamental economic disruption?

NILS JAEGER, PRESIDENT, VOLVO AUTONOMOUS SOLUTIONS: This truck doesn't need, you know, a lunch break, doesn't need a coffee break, doesn't have, you know, mandatory break times. You can go much further, you can go faster, and that is, of course, super valuable.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): Before our drive comes to an end, we came across one last test.

While we were focused on our interview in the cabin, a woman walking on the shoulder of the highway comes into view.

LAVANDERA: There's someone on the road right there.

LAVANDERA (voice-over): The Volvo truck changes lanes briefly until it passes the woman safely.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LAVANDERA: Brianna, we spent about an hour riding in the truck. It was a controlled set route, but it gave you a sense of how the truck operates. And we also spoke with a number of experts about where this industry is headed. And they told us for the foreseeable future, you're going to see these trucks rolling out in the Southwest and in the Sunbelt states where there's generally good weather, wide-open highways.

Where it gets much more complicated will be in urban areas, mountainous states, as well as the Northeast and Midwest where there's severe winter weather to contend with as well.

But the bottom line is there are a number of companies, not just Volvo, pushing to put more of these autonomous trucks on the highways -- Brianna.

KEILAR: Really interesting. Ed Lavendera, thank you so much.

And thank you so much for joining us this evening.

"AC360" starts right now.