Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Countdown To Trump-Putin Summit; National Guard Presence Expands; ICE Deportation Planes Hiding Data Used To Track Them. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired August 14, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:27]

MIN JUNG LEE, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers, joining us from the United States and all around the world. Thanks so much for being with us. I'm MJ Lee. Rahel Solomon is off.

It's Thursday, August 14th, 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

And straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, the countdown is on to this critical summit between President Trump and President Putin. And President Trump is tamping down expectations.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I've had a lot of good conversations with him. Then I go home and I see that a rocket hit an apartment building and people are laying dead in the streets.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There will be a significantly larger National Guard presence all around the city of Washington, and they are starting to activate 24/7 operational stance.

TRUMP: I don't want to call national emergency. If I have to, I will.

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT: Over 1.3 million people tuned in live on YouTube to watch Taylor Swift on her boyfriend Travis Kelce and his brother Jason Kelce's podcast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And she really peeled back the curtain on her personal life, on her relationship with Travis and on her new era.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

LEE: Right now, Ukraine's president is meeting with the British prime minister in London about Russia's war on Ukraine. The visit comes a day after Volodymyr Zelenskyy, European leaders and the U.S. held a virtual conference to discuss the upcoming summit between Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The U.S. president issued this warning to his Russian counterpart ahead of their meeting.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Will Russia face any consequences if Vladimir Putin does not agree to stop the war after your meeting on Friday?

TRUMP: Yes, they will. Yeah.

REPORTER: What will the consequences?

TRUMP: There will be consequences.

REPORTER: Sanctions? Tariffs?

TRUMP: There will be -- I don't have to say. There will be very severe consequences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: During Wednesday's virtual summit on Ukraine that was hosted by Germany, two European diplomats tell CNN that President Trump appeared to suggest that he would push for an unconditional ceasefire at Friday's meeting with President Putin, and President Trump says that if the meeting goes well on Friday, follow up talks could include President Zelenskyy and happen almost immediately afterward. Ukraine and European leaders have urged President Trump to not agree to a peace deal with Putin without including them.

French President Emmanuel Macron says Trump was very clear that Washington wants to secure a ceasefire, and that Ukraine's territory cannot be negotiated without its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, reaffirmed on Wednesday that he will not cede the Russian occupied Donbas region to Moscow and laid out his terms for a peace deal.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT (through translator): Everything about Ukraine will be discussed with Ukraine. We have to get prepared for a three-sided format of the conversation. There should be a ceasefire first, then security guarantees, real security guarantees. And by the way, President Trump expressed his support for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: And let's go live now to CNN's Clare Sebastian at 10 Downing Street in London.

Clare, we just saw Starmer giving Zelenskyy a warm greeting right behind you, help lay out the stakes for us ahead of Friday.

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, this is an extremely crucial moment. I know we've said it before, MJ, but I think this this really applies right now. Ukraine is in a precarious position both diplomatically and on the battlefield, although we have actually heard from a regional head of the Donetsk region this morning that they say they've stabilized the situation just north of Pokrovsk, where Russia has been making gains in recent days but still, look, we know that out of the meeting on Wednesday that it seems certainly from diplomats that CNN has spoken to and world leaders coming out of that meeting and speaking about it, that Trump seems to have accepted and, you know, to some degree agreed with Europe's red lines on how to end this war in Ukraine.

The ceasefire needs to happen before any meaningful discussions on a settlement that no discussion of Ukrainian territory can happen without Ukraine. Those are the key ones, but I think there is still a real concern about what happens when he goes face to face with President Putin one on one, and something President Zelenskyy has been warning about over the past few days.

And frankly, throughout this conflict is that Russia will try to manipulate and deceive the U.S. the absolute worst-case scenario, I think, for Ukraine coming out of this meeting is that some kind of preliminary deal is made between the U.S. and Russia. He then has to reject it and then gets blamed by both parties for standing in the way of peace, which is, of course, something that the Kremlin has repeatedly blamed him for, despite, of course, being the aggressor in this in this conflict.

[05:05:02]

So, I think, look, today they will be talking about the results of meetings on Wednesday. They will be looking ahead to what comes out of Alaska. What would success look like? Perhaps some kind of agreement around a ceasefire. At this point, the Russians have shown no sign that they might be willing to do that.

And of course, if it doesn't go well, what happens then? How will the Europeans put pressure on Russia to try to end the conflict in a different way? How will they convince the U.S., which has so far been relatively reticent about upping sanctions or pressure on Russia as they try to bring them to the table? How will they convince the U.S. to do the same, and how will they keep Trump engaged?

Because, of course, they also don't want him, as he's vaguely threatened to do in the past, to walk away from this whole process. So, an extremely high stakes moment, a very serious looking Zelenskyy walking in to 10 Downing Street this morning.

LEE: Stakes could not be higher. Clare Sebastian at 10 Downing Street in London. Thank you so much.

The White House says there is now significantly more National Guard troops patrolling Washington, D.C. this is all part of President Trump's crackdown on crime in the city. Guard members are not making arrests and their involvement could change depending on the needs of law enforcement.

CNN's Brian Todd filed this report from outside a deployment site for federal agencies on Wednesday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're at a major staging area for almost every agency involved in this expanded law enforcement operation in D.C. this is the U.S. national park polices major facility here in the Anacostia section of Washington, D.C., and a major staging ground for just about every agency that is involved in this deployment.

We have seen National Guard armored Humvees. They're down there. You can see them over there by the entrance. Several of them there -- they've been, deploying all over this city with National Guardsmen in other places in the city as well. And over here, over my right shoulder will kind of come this way a little bit. You can see a lot of personnel gathered there by the command and control center and by those temporary communications stanchions over there.

And you see all these vehicles. Its been a real beehive of activity here. Just about every agency you can imagine has been deploying agents and officers in and out of this facility for several hours and several days. We have seen National Guardsmen coming and going. FBI agents, DEA agents, Customs and Border Protection, Metropolitan Washington Police, Capitol Hill police and other agencies.

Again, agents and officers going in and out of here for several hours that we have been here. What we can tell you is that according to a White House official, as of Tuesday evening, the operation surpassed 100 total arrests. There were 43 arrests on Tuesday night, and that was double the number of the previous night.

Now, of those more than 100 arrests. One was for homicide, 33 were firearms violations. There were seven narcotics-related charges and there were several other charges in those, more than 100 arrests.

Starting Wednesday night, according to a White House official who spoke to CNN, starting Wednesday night, there will be a significantly larger National Guard presence all around the city of Washington, and they are starting to activate a 24/7 operational stance for the National Guard here in Washington.

According to this White House official who spoke to CNN, the National Guard will not be arresting people. We are also told that they will not be carrying firearms on their person. They may have them in their vehicles in case they need them. But of course, every other agency has officers and agents who are armed here.

According to this official, the National Guards role will be to assist other federal units and create a safe environment for other officers. Now, President Trump has said on Wednesday that he plans to extend this operation past the temporary 30-day mark. He's going to need an act of Congress to do that. He believes he can get a bill passed to do that.

But the president committing to this operation for at least he says, past the one-month mark.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee are demanding answers from the U.S. attorney general. They want to know why Ghislaine Maxwell, an accomplice of the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, was suddenly moved to a low security federal prison camp in Texas. The transfer came after Maxwell met in private with the deputy attorney general to answer his questions related to the Epstein investigation.

House Democrats are requesting all documents and information related to Maxwell's transfer. They say it raises concerns of potential witness tampering or a government coverup, and may also potentially violate the Board of Prisons' policies.

Here's what the congressman who is leading this effort had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JAMIE RASKIN (D-MD): Normally, that's a process that takes months. Youve got to demonstrate why there's some compelling reason you need to be moved from one facility to another, a change in the facts of your case, or a change in the law. And then, even if you're granted the permission to switch, it generally takes months to get off the wait list. Well, she bypassed that entire process and is just moved over to that facility.

Obviously, the administration is sending the message to her that she will be rewarded for the proper cooperation.

[05:10:06]

Blanche liked what he heard her saying in terms of Donald Trump. And we know that's all they've been concerned about. They're not concerned about the victims. They're not concerned about ongoing sex abuse, trafficking. If there's any that's taking place, what they're concerned about is Donald Trump, because they had an army of more than a thousand FBI agents working around the clock searching for any mention of Donald Trump's name or any photograph or any video glimpse of him in all of these documents.

So we want everything turned over, and we want a transcript in the original recording of all of his interviews with her, because they sacked one of the attorneys who had been on that case for a long time, he didn't bring any of the line prosecutors with him, and Todd Blanche engaged in that questioning or that conversation totally on his own.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Still to come, there are talks of possibly resettling Palestinians in Gaza to South Sudan as Israel plans to escalate the war.

Plus, it's the first day of school for thousands of children in Los Angeles. What school officials are doing to help kids whose families are affected by the immigration crackdown.

And later, wildfires are burning across Europe. We'll take a closer look at where firefighters are working desperately to tackle those flames.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:15:49]

LEE: Israel is discussing the possible resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza to South Sudan, according to "The Associated Press". It's unclear how far those talks might have progressed with South Sudan, but its foreign affairs ministry called the resettlement report baseless. The Israeli prime minister told I24 News that Israel is talking to several countries about this, and that Palestinians are not being pushed out, but rather being allowed to leave.

Meanwhile, the Israeli military has been bombarding Gaza City ahead of its planned takeover. The Palestinian health ministry in Gaza says 123 people were killed in a 24-hour period, and the IDF says its chief of staff has largely approved a new attack plan for Gaza.

CNN's Nada Bashir is covering this live from London.

Nada, the military escalation is now colliding with talks of resettlement. How is this all being received in the region?

NADA BASHIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we are seeing increased outrage at these reports coming in that the Israeli prime minister and other Israeli officials are in talks with several nations with regards to plans and prospects to resettle Palestinians from within the Gaza strip, elsewhere. This is a notion that has been brought up in the past, over the last 22 months, questions around whether Palestinians could be resettled, for example, in Egypt, across the border. That is something that the Egyptian officials have previously and repeatedly rejected.

And of course, there have been many vocal critics who have said that such ideas, such prospects from the Israeli government could be tantamount to ethnic cleansing, that this would be a violation of international humanitarian law. And of course, what we have seen over the last few weeks and months is Palestinians increasingly being pushed into concentrated areas in the south and in the southeast, where essentially they are being placed in these humanitarian zones, so-called humanitarian zones that are still coming under attack with little hope of ever being able to return to where they once lived.

And of course, as we know, almost all of the entire Gaza Strip has now been completely destroyed. And as you mentioned, MJ, we've been hearing now from Israeli military officials that this new plan for military offensive in the Gaza Strip has been approved. We're already seeing the military doubling down on its offensive in parts of central Gaza, where we have seen that increased bombardment.

And the idea behind this is, of course, for the Israeli military to double down its control over the Gaza Strip. It is believed that the military already controls some 75 percent of the Gaza Strip. Now, questions around whether this could lead to a total occupation of the Gaza Strip by the Israeli military, something we haven't seen for the last two decades. So there is mounting concern over what the future could look like for

Palestinian civilians living in the Gaza strip. As we mentioned, there have been those discussions. According to the Israeli prime minister, with several nations. It's unclear which nations at this stage around possible resettlement plans. As you mentioned, MJ, the government of South Sudan has rejected these reports that were put out by the "Associated Press" as baseless. But again, this is something that many in the international community, many in the humanitarian world, including many at the United Nations, have repeatedly criticized as a move that could violate international law. And again, questions around whether this could be tantamount to ethnic cleansing if indeed carried out -- MJ.

LEE: Nada Bashir in London, thank you for that report.

Immigrant deportation flights are skyrocketing in the U.S., but the planes used to carry out those missions are getting harder to track. We'll explain why.

Plus, glacial melt is sending floodwaters surging in Alaska's capital city. That story and much more after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:24:11]

LEE: Students in Los Angeles will be getting ready for the first day of school in the coming hours, amid the Trump administrations ongoing immigration crackdown. The Los Angeles unified school district is offering a care package of resources on legal rights, mental health and emergency preparedness, all meant to help children and their families who may be affected by the raids.

Here's what the school district superintendent had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALBERTO CARVALHO, SUPERINTENDENT, LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT : Every student across Los Angeles unified will go home with this package on the very first day of school. We are concerned about the first, second and third weeks of school. We do not know what the enrollment will be like. We know many parents may have already left our community. They may have self-reported.

We don't know what that will be and that could be somewhat disruptive this school year.

[05:25:03]

We hope that through our communication efforts, our awareness efforts, information and direct counseling with students and parents that will be able to provide stable attendance for kids in our community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Meanwhile, a federal judge has ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement to immediately improve conditions at a holding facility in New York City, including by limiting capacity cleaning cells three times a day and providing sleeping mats. The ruling comes after detainees complained about dirty conditions, with cell phone video showing about two dozen men crowded into one room, with only blankets.

This comes as the number of ICE deportation flights is skyrocketing and also becoming harder to track.

CNN's Rene Marsh has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RENE MARSH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: More than 30 migrants, detainees handcuffed walk up those steps and get on board. One, two, three, four more detainees. You can tell that their hands are restrained.

(voice-over): This is one of about 6,000 ICE flights since President Donald Trump took office. We were able to find this plane here in Richmond, Virginia, but most of them are hidden from the public and operating with little transparency. Virtually every ICE flight carrying detainees blocks their tail numbers from flight tracking websites, making it nearly impossible for families and advocates to find their loved ones once they're in ICE custody.

This is one of the tail numbers that we think could possibly come here, and right now, it's in Youngstown. Oh, look, I think it's taken off because the altitude is increasing. Yeah.

We studied months of flight paths, got a tail number and made an educated guess about which flight would arrive in Richmond. Then using a crowdsourced database that monitors aircraft radio signals, we tracked the suspected flight, revealing every city and state it stopped in within 24 hours.

This is the plane we're tracking, a Boeing 737 operated by Eastern Air Express, with the tail number N668CP. It has up to 148 economy seats, a bathroom in the front and the back, but it's unclear how many people are on board this flight or any other ICE flight.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Tyson 51, continue on.

MARSH: Okay. Tyson 51 is this one right now. That's the call sign that they're using for this flight.

Many ICE flights go by Tyson. The same call sign used to identify Trump's personal plane after he was elected in 2016.

Here's the flight path it took on August 6 -- Ohio, New York, Pennsylvania to Louisiana, back to Ohio, then New York, picking up and dropping off detainees at every stop.

If it's actually coming to Virginia, it should be here very soon.

It's on approach. It's on approach right now.

It's altitude is like literally 50 feet. So --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK, I think over there, over there. Go, go, go.

MARSH: All right. I think -- I think that might be it. This is a plane. This is a plane that we've been tracking all morning. This is it.

And we just saw like more than 30 detainees handcuffed, walk up those steps and get on board.

There's one, two, three, four more detainees. You can tell that their hands are restrained. Another, another one, another. Okay, so they're unloading another vehicle here. Multiple detainees walking up to get on board this Eastern Air Express flight.

The Trump administration has used more than 70 airports across the country for domestic shuttle flights so far, moving ICE detainees between detention centers before deportation.

In the past three months, the number of these flights spiked 90 percent compared to the same time period last year, according to an immigrant rights group.

And that trend is expected to continue after the Department of Homeland Security recently earmarked $14.4 billion for ICE flights.

We know that the tail number of the flight that we've been tracking today is N6668CP, and we want to see if this public tracking site that gets its data and information from the FAA has any record of the flight. Nothing comes up.

But we were able to track the flight as it made its way back to Alexandria, Louisiana, the busiest hub for ICE deportation flights. At this point in the journey, some of the first detainees on board were possibly on this plane, handcuffed for nearly ten hours. As this ICE flight completes its 24-hour trip, Louisiana is likely the last stop in the U.S. before the people on board are deported.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEE: A highway camera captured a law enforcement officer helping a woman during a flash flooding in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Her vehicle became stranded in floodwaters after heavy storms on Tuesday. The officer picked her up and carried her.