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Early Start with Rahel Solomon

Uncertainty Over Putin-Zelenskyy Meeting; Trump Attacks Smithsonian Museums; Hurricane Erin Moves Along East Coast. Aired 5- 5:30a ET

Aired August 20, 2025 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:25]

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from the United States and all around the world. I'm Danny Freeman. Rahel Solomon is off today.

It is Wednesday, August 20th, 5:00 a.m. here in Atlanta.

And straight ahead on EARLY START.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: President Trump and the White House still making plans for a potential meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: In order to move the ball forward with diplomacy and towards peace, you have to have open dialogue.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump escalated his attacks on Smithsonian museums.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't learn from history if you don't know what actually happened. So, it's a way of keeping people ignorant.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hurricane Erin churns up the Atlantic. This is what it looks like before the worst of it is expected.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rip currents, the strength of them is really unprecedented. That's something I have not seen in many years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(MUSIC)

FREEMAN: Our top story this morning, the White House says plans are now underway to get the leaders of Russia and Ukraine to meet face to face in hopes of finding a path to peace. But so far, Moscow is refusing to commit to such a meeting. U.S. President Donald Trump, who sat down with both leaders in the past few days, says he thinks it would be better if Vladimir Putin and Vladimir Zelenskyy meet for talks without him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEAVITT: Ultimately, the president has always said that there are areas of disagreement in this war that will have to be discussed and decided upon by these two countries. And so, he wants these two countries to engage in direct diplomacy. He said that from the very beginning, which is why he's agreeable to the idea of having President Zelenskyy and President Putin get together. And I understand accommodations for that meeting are underway.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Here's the challenge, though. The kremlin has yet to make any firm commitments, Russia's foreign minister says meetings between top officials must be prepared with the utmost care.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SERGEY LAVROV, RUSSIA FOREIGN MINISTER: Step by step, gradually starting from the expert level and then going through all the necessary stages in order to prepare for the summits. This is the kind of serious approach we will always support.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: Meanwhile, NATO military leaders are set to meet today to discuss Ukraine as Russia's attacks continue unabated. In fact, Russia launched its largest aerial attack since July on the same day President Trump and Zelenskyy met at the White House.

Well, Ukraine says one person was injured in a Russian drone attack early today on a fuel and energy facility in the southern port city of Odesa.

CNN's Clare Sebastian is following all of this for us in London and joins us now live.

Clare, I mean, just break it down every day that Putin does not agree to this meeting, does the prospect of peace go down?

CLARE SEBASTIAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. Look, Danny, I think in some ways that's true. As the Kremlin gets more confident, perhaps, that it will get what it wants. This prospect becomes more remote.

But you played some of Lavrov -- I think it's pretty clear at this point that were nowhere close to this meeting actually happening. We've had either the Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, saying we might potentially look at raising the level of the delegation involved in direct talks. Frankly, I think it would be difficult to lower it, given that the delegation was headed by a writer of historical textbooks, a former culture minister in Istanbul and then Lavrov saying, you know, yes. But, of course, it will require the utmost care.

So, the White House really is having to dance around this. Take a listen to my colleague Kristen Holmes pressing Karoline Leavitt, the White House spokesperson, on this topic. Again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: You said earlier about Putin agreeing to the meeting, the Kremlin seemed to indicate that Putin did not firmly agree to a bilateral. Did he agree to have a sit down with Zelenskyy on the phone?

LEAVITT: I can assure you that the United States government and the Trump administration is working with both Russia and Ukraine to make that bilateral happen, as we speak.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SEBASTIAN: So, yeah, I mean, there haven't been able to say definitively either way. And I think, look, experts, I've been speaking to really feel that Putin will not commit to this meeting unless he feels there's a good chance that Zelenskyy will cave to his demands. And of course, we know those demands include giving up territory, including territory that Ukraine controls, limiting the size of its military, committing to never joining NATO, many of which are, of course, a nonstarter for Ukraine.

But Putin is hoping, I think, number one, that Trump will put enough pressure on Zelenskyy to bring him to the point where he caves to Russia's demands. Or, of course, Russia can put enough pressure militarily on Ukraine to get to that same point. And of course, you showed the pictures of the ongoing attacks.

So, we have the White House sort of dressing up this impasse as progress in the Kremlin, dressing up a no as a yes in many ways.

[05:05:07]

And I think the bottom line is, as you say, peace does become more difficult because this all gives time, of course, for Russia to make progress on the battlefield. That's why it's so critical to Russia that there's no ceasefire. And of course, it gives more time for Russia to cement its control over those occupied regions. There's a deadline, for example, coming up in September, where Russia has stipulated that people in those regions have to get Russian passports or leave.

And this brings us, of course, to the point of security guarantees. Again, more discussions likely to touch on this today among NATO military chiefs. This is somewhere where Europe and Ukraine can really make progress. Of course, it's contingent on a peace deal, but Ukraine cannot sign a peace deal unless it feels that it's got enough security to make that peace deal hold -- Danny.

SEBASTIAN: I appreciate you making that point, that every minute that this meeting, that peace, that a ceasefire doesn't happen again. Those attacks keep occurring.

Clare Sebastian in London, thank you so much for your time this morning. Stateside now, the U.S. president is increasing his attacks on the Smithsonian museums. Donald Trump is accusing them of being too focused on highlighting the negative parts of American history, including, quote, how bad slavery was. Well, the campaign to rid cultural institutions of so-called woke agenda is similar to his crackdown on universities across the country.

CNN's Kristen Holmes has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump escalated his attacks on Smithsonian museums today in a truth social post, posting this said the Smithsonian is out of control where everything discussed is how horrible our country is, how bad slavery was, and how unaccomplished the downtrodden have been. Nothing about success, nothing about brightness, nothing about the future.

Now, there are a lot of reasons for concern over this post. We know that this comes after President Trump ordered a sweeping review of Smithsonian institutions. And I want to read to you a portion of the letter of why they said that they were ordering this review. They said that this aims to ensure alignment with the president's directive to celebrate American exceptionalism, exceptionalism removed a divisive or partisan narratives and restore confidence in our shared cultural institutions.

Now, there were no specifics as to what exactly they were going to remove from these various Smithsonian museums, but there was a lot of concerns that this would be an effort on the white houses part to try and whitewash history, to try and get rid of some of the parts of history that are uglier, like slavery. But the things that make America, America.

Now, this post essentially to many, is going to confirm that that is what the White House is looking to do, particularly when he's mentioning their slavery and saying essentially that all of these museums do is paint slavery in a negative light.

And it's unclear how you would have slavery in a museum and not paint it in a dark or negative light. It was obviously a very dark time in American history. But again, is part of what is the fabric that makes America the country it is today.

So lots of concern already, lots of pushback, particularly now that were seeing a little bit more in terms of specifics of what president Trump is trying to do when it comes to those Smithsonian museums.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREEMAN: Kristen, thank you for that.

And much of the U.S. East Coast is seeing dangerous surf conditions from Hurricane Erin and destructive waves and storm surge could reach North Carolina's outer banks in the hours ahead. The states governor declared a state of emergency on Tuesday to free up resources ahead of the storms impacts. Erin is just shy of a category three strength, and while landfall is not expected, thankfully coastal flooding is still a concern and Bermuda could also be impacted by rough seas and tropical storm force winds later this week.

Our Dianne Gallagher reports from the outer banks.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, as Hurricane Erin turns up the Atlantic, this is what it looks like about 24 hours before the worst of it is expected here in the outer banks of North Carolina. Now, there is no forecasted hit on the coastline of North Carolina, but the impact is expected to be felt in the storm surge in the waves and the potential for transportation issues with the very narrow roadway that goes through this geographical barrier island that lines the length of the state.

Now, here in Nags Head, we are in high tide. You can see there are still plenty of families out here enjoying the day, but good for us right now. Staying out of the water. And that's because these very intense rip currents have been reported starting on Monday throughout North Carolina. There are no swim advisories all the way from here up to New York at this point. Preparing for Hurricane Erin. On Monday, more than 90 rescues because of rip currents. Fewer on Tuesday in the southern part of the state. They hope because people are heeding those warnings.

[05:10:02]

Now the biggest concerns are going to be waves, which could get up to 20 feet, and storm surge, which we could be looking at four feet of storm surge, which we could be looking at four feet of storm surge. And the reason why that is so significant in the outer banks of North Carolina is because of the unique way that that the geography is here.

Essentially, it is very narrow islands that are connected by a highway and a couple of bridges. We're talking about five and a half kilometers at the widest point of the outer banks. And really just about 130 meters at the most narrow. They're all connected by one highway, which has not fared well in some past hurricanes. Some emergency managers have already told people the emergency and mandatory evacuation zones if you don't leave. We may not be able to reach you to help you for more than a week as they repair this highway. Going through it.

Again, they expect the worst of this to be Wednesday night into Thursday morning in the outer banks and are asking anybody who is a tourist to either be prepared or get out now.

Dianne Gallagher, CNN, back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREEMAN: Dianne, thanks for that. Still to come, the U.S. Department of Justice is set to release

documents on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. But will it be enough for the House Oversight Committee? We'll tell you their next steps.

Plus, Home Depot announcing price increases due to the tariffs. We'll tell you some of the items hit unexpectedly by this trade war.

And a setback for civil rights groups in their case against the Trump administrations so-called Alligator Alcatraz. We'll tell you how they plan to keep their fight going after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:16:06]

FREEMAN: The U.S. Department of Justice is expected to release files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation this coming Friday. And the House Oversight Committee says it will make some of those documents public once they're redacted to remove victims names and other sensitive material.

CNN's Katelyn Polantz has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATELYN POLANTZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: The House Oversight Committee, they're making demands, and they're getting some answers. The big question, though, is going to be, will anything disclose to the House Oversight Committee now, in their probe of Jeffrey Epstein, be something that hasn't been disclosed before?

We're looking forward to the end of this week. That's when the Justice Department is set to turn over records or begin to turn over records that they have related to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. His death, essentially everything that the House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed of the Justice Department. The chair of that committee said yesterday that even though their deadline was today to turn things over, they're going to begin making productions on Friday. We'll have to see exactly what becomes public from that and if the House Oversight Committee finds anything that isn't already out there in the public sphere.

We have had a trial of Ghislaine Maxwell already that disclosed a lot of evidence related to Epstein because she was a coconspirator in that sex trafficking of minors. And then also, there's been a lot of litigation and public disclosures. The House Oversight committee, they're not stopping just with records requests from the Justice Department. They also want people to come and testify under oath to them. It was Bill Barr, the former attorney general, who in 2019, when he was in charge of the Justice Department, that's when Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were indicted and when Epstein died in jail.

Comer after Barr's deposition, said that Epstein died by suicide. That was one of the things Barr testified to under oath. Barr also said that there was no foul play from his perspective as the attorney general and that he had not had any conversations with Trump, who was the president at that time in 2019 about a client Epstein may have had and that there was nothing that Barr said that would have incriminated Trump.

Democrats have been critical, however, of this probe. They are saying that the Republicans, James Comer, leading this House Oversight Committee subpoenas and depositions, the Democrats are saying that they're not really digging very deep. And this is probably not going to be turning up anything that would be revelatory.

So we're going to keep watching to see exactly what else comes. There's five other former attorneys general that are subpoenaed, as well as the Clintons and two FBI directors. If the House Oversight Committee gets further into the probe. The big question will still remain. Are we going to see the full Epstein files and perhaps even that transcript of Ghislaine Maxwell just a few weeks ago, speaking for several hours to the deputy attorney general of the Justice Department.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREEMAN: Katelyn Polantz, thank you for that.

Joining us now, it just got a lot more expensive to bring some goods into the U.S., thanks to tariffs. Hundreds more imported products are now subject to the 50 percent levy on steel and aluminum. That includes everyday items like baby strollers, spray, deodorant cans, fire extinguishers as well, and more.

Now, items like these were originally exempt from the tariff, but from Monday, 407 categories of goods were suddenly added to the list. Now, some businesses like Home Depot are already set to raise their prices to eat some of the tariff costs. The company's CFO says the increases will be modest, but won't be, quote, broad based.

All right, now lets take a check of U.S. futures now ahead of the opening bell. In just a few hours. Dow, S&P, Nasdaq futures are slightly down at the moment. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed roughly flat on Tuesday after a momentarily reaching an all time high.

The S&P 500 finished the day down more than a half a percent, and the Nasdaq closed down 1.5 percent, driven largely by declines in tech stocks.

[05:20:07]

Investors and economists will be closely watching Fed Chair Jerome Powell's remarks on the health of the U.S. economy during a key meeting of central bankers later this week. We'll be looking forward to that.

All right. Coming up, big developments in the battle over redistricting. Leaders in America's two most populous states push to redraw voter maps and control of the U.S. House is at stake.

Plus, we'll tell you how a random Facebook message in an unexpected reunion gave a retired autoworker renewed hope in humanity. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:25:02]

FREEMAN: Texas lawmakers are expected to start voting today on the contentious redistricting plan backed by President Trump. That will likely see Republicans pick up five congressional seats.

Now, California's Democratic leaders are retaliating with their own push to redraw voter maps in an effort to balance the national scales. The California measure passed a hurdle on Tuesday and will be taken up by another committee later today. But unlike in Texas, voters in California would have the final say on whether the proposed maps become law.

CNN's Steve Contorno picks up the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

STEVE CONTORNO, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: It was a day of heated debate in the California state legislature, as lawmakers considered, and then quickly advanced a set of proposals that could potentially net Democrats five additional congressional seats in next year's midterm elections. Democrats arguing across multiple committee meetings that they are simply responding to a similar attempt by Republicans in Texas to give themselves an advantage in next years elections.

CHRISTOPHER CABALDON, CALIFORNIA STTATE SENATE DEMOCRAT: We didn't ask for this fight. They brought this fight to us. And California cannot stand down if other states are attempting to cheat and rig the election in 2006 to maintain Republican control of Congress.

CONTORNO: California Republicans vigorously opposed these proposals, saying that this for tat fight with Texas and President Donald Trump will be costly for taxpayers because it will be tens of millions of dollars to hold a statewide election and also saying that two wrongs do not make a right.

DAVID TANGIPA, CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY REPUBLICAN: When other states decide to do something else, we shouldn't react to them. We should prove by example that we can do this better, that we create the foundations for the rest of the nation because it's supposed to go as California goes, the nation. That's -- we've lost that, and that's what we've seen and heard today. We can't even read our own bill, but we'll decide to present it and vote on it, too. That's insanity. And that's heartbreaking to the rest of Californians.

CONTORNO: Some California lawmakers on Tuesday filed a lawsuit asking the state Supreme Court of California to intervene and slow down this process, but it is moving ahead and rather quickly. There will be more votes tomorrow in the assembly and the Senate. And final passage is slated for Thursday.

Steve Contorno, CNN, Sacramento, California.

(END VIDEOTAPE) FREEMAN: Thanks for that, Steve.

So, the League of Women Voters of the United States has now come out against what's happening in Texas, as well as California's countermeasures. Celina Stewart is the group's CEO, and she's joining us now from Washington.

Thank you so much, Celina, for joining us early on this morning.

I want to start by reading what you wrote recently on this. If we can pull it up. While it began in Texas and spread to other Republican-led states, several Democratic governors are now preparing to counter by drawing new maps of their own. This dangerous tit for tat turns redistricting into a partisan arms race. The losers are the voters, regardless of party.

So, Celina, let's start there.

Are the voters in for a loss in 2026?

CELINA STEWART, CEO, LEAGUE OF WOMEN VOTERS OF U.S.: I think they definitely are if states continue to press and push for mid-cycle redistricting. This is happening five years earlier than its supposed to, and we cant think about redistricting in a vacuum. It happens following a census which is a count of the residents in this country.

And so, it's not just Democrats. It's not just Republicans. This is happening. There's, I think 12 states considering doing this across the country. So, this is very dangerous for voters. It's going to make it very hard for people to elect their candidates of choice in 2026.

FREEMAN: Well, let me get your perspective on this, because it seems like at this point the train has left the station and we may see more efforts, as you noted, to redraw the maps before next year.

From your perspective, how does this end if we keep going back and forth like this?

STEWART: Well, we filed a lawsuit in Texas, and so and I -- you know, as you just said, there are people in California who have done the same. And so, it's really going to come down to whether or not these are legal means that the states -- if the states means to do this, and in many cases, we don't think that they are.

And the reality is, is that voters have the right to choose their representatives. And right now, they're being robbed of that opportunity. But make no mistake, should states engage in this and courts allow it to move forward, then the league will do what we have always done.

We will make sure that there is public input. We will be pushing to make sure that the process has transparency and accountability in it. We are already around the country with observer cause watching and listening to see how these things are going to play out.

FREEMAN: You know, the California plan is fascinating because it really its far from a sure thing. I covered a number of referendums out there when I used to live out there. Voters still need to sign off on this if it were to show up on a ballot.

From your perspective, are you hoping that voters vote that effort down just in the spirit of.