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Police Confirm Active Shooter At Fort Stewart In Georgia; Fort Stewart: Casualties Reported; Police Confirm Active Shooter; Vance, Wiles, Bondi, Patel, Blanche Meet Tonight To Discuss Epstein; Sources: Fort Stewart Shooter No Longer A Threat. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired August 06, 2025 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Welcome to Inside Politics. I'm Dana Bash, and we are following breaking news. Out of Georgia right now, the U.S. Army's Fort Stewart is in lockdown for an active shooter situation, that's according to police. CNN's Isabel Rosales is in Atlanta. Isabel, what are you learning?

OK. Isabel, I believe that we're having a little trouble getting to Isabel now. I want to go now to Juliette Kayyem, our national security analyst. I believe, Juliette, are you there? If you are, tell us what -- there you go. Juliette, I know that this is literally breaking --

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Welcome back. Sorry about those technical difficulties. We are back, and we are following the breaking news out of the U.S. Army's Fort Stewart. It is in lockdown for an active shooter situation. Now I want to go to CNN's Isabel Rosales, who is in Atlanta. Isabel, please tell us what you're learning about the situation?

[12:05:00]

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Dana, very serious situation. The U.S. Army's Fort Stewart is under lockdown, according to the police spokesperson there at the fort, this is Lieutenant Colonel Angel Tomko. The incident centering around the second Armored Brigade Combat Team area, where police have confirmed to CNN, quote, there is an active shooter. They didn't give us additional details around that -- beyond that.

We do know that all gates leading into and out of the fort are currently closed. And according to the Facebook page for the Fort Stewart casualties have been reported, they wrote on there, the situation, of course, is ongoing. Now Fort Stewart is the largest army installation east of the Mississippi. It trains and deploys active and reserve army units. It is also the home to the Third Infantry Division, and is located just 40 miles southwest of Savannah, Georgia.

We also have this, Dana, from Governor -- Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who just put out on social media. He said this. As we remain in close contact with law enforcement on the ground, Marty, the girls and I are saddened by today's tragedy at Fort Stewart. We are keeping the victims, their families and all of those who answer the call to serve in our hearts and prayers. And we ask the Georgians everywhere do the same.

Of course, this is a very active situation. We're making the phone calls, waiting to hear about any sort of press conference to get those details as to what happened here and bring it to you live on CNN.

BASH: OK. And as you said, it is obviously an active situation, an active shooter, to be precise. Stick with us, Isabel. For now, I do want to go to CNN senior national security analyst Juliette Kayyem. Juliette, as you look at this situation, and as you have so many times before, unfortunately, what is going through the minds of, and most importantly, the strategy of law enforcement.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So, we are -- this is early, but it is -- it is not common to lockdown an entire fort, and so, we should take it very seriously. We don't know the extent of what harms there are. So how this is being considered by the Pentagon is, was this an internal threat, someone inside the gate, so to speak, who had either ties or is a member of the military. And therefore, someone who will be known and someone who hopefully will be detained or stopped from what they're doing.

The second -- the only other option is that this is someone who breached pretty strong security and safety protocols around most of these forts because we think a lot about force protection. People are sleeping. They're working. They're doing all sorts of things in these facilities. And the Pentagon takes seriously force protection, which is essentially exterior controls, which are armed. Anyone who's entered a fort like this knows the kind of security that that occurs.

So, this is where we are right now. If there was a breach, that's pretty bad in terms of both stopping the person who's doing it but obviously exposing vulnerabilities in the force protection. So, we'll continue to monitor. This is rare. I've been around and know a lot about these facilities and to lock the entire facility down means that they may have an ongoing threat. So, we'll continue to monitor.

BASH: Yeah. And you know, just to your point about not knowing whether it's internal or external. First of all, the lockdown started at 11:04 am eastern. And so that was an hour and four minutes ago, and there are more than 10,000 people. We're talking about soldiers, family members, army, civilian employees who reside on this post, it is very, very large.

And so that kind of goes to the point that you're making how unusual it is to say to all of those 10,000 or so people, do not go anywhere. You're in lockdown, particularly on -- in a situation where you're talking about a military base.

KAYYEM: Right. And it's August, and that means that families are home. If they are around, children are not in school. I mean, you're really looking at a sort of a small town that is now under lockdown. And then we don't know if the threat was external or internal. And what it means in terms of both, you know, obviously motive, but the extent to which people are presently in harm's way, or people have been harmed. And so that is -- those are the questions we have.

[12:10:00]

But in terms of the history of these kinds of active shooter lockdowns. Look, we hear about these things a lot of time, and they end up not being real. In fact, when the producer texted me, I said, get back to me and tell me if it's real because, you know, there's a lot of false reporting. Because these are military facilities, this one seems very real, and we hope for that the harm is limited.

But I will say the exterior -- if the exterior has been breached by an active shooter, the Pentagon is going to have to fortify and focus on every facility within the United States. How vulnerable are they, given the threat environment right now, with a sort of, you know this -- in terms of people, maybe wanting to harm the United States or the military from the exterior of these facilities into them.

BASH: Yeah. I mean, that is one of the key questions. We are going to continue to monitor this. Again, casualties have been reported amid a lockdown at the U.S. Army's Fort Stewart in Georgia. And according to a spokesperson, they are confirming that there is an active shooter and casualties have been reported. We're not sure what that means. It's a very vague statement, and we are waiting to get more details on that.

Juliette, thank you, Isabel as well. We will get back to this story as soon as we learn more.

Now we're going to turn back to politics. Tonight, Vice President J.D. Vance is hosting a dinner at his official residence to craft a new strategy for dealing with the Jeffrey Epstein scandal that's been plaguing the White House for more than a month now. The guest list includes the White House Chief of Staff, Susie Wiles, FBI Director Kash Patel, Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

Sources tell CNN they will discuss whether to release an audio recording and transcript of Todd Blanche's recent conversation with Epstein's accomplice and convicted sex trafficker, Ghislaine Maxwell.

Now, this morning, the family of Virginia Duffrey, a prominent victim of both Epstein and Maxwell, released a statement on reports of this dinner. It says in part, quote, missing from this group is, of course, any survivor of the vicious crimes of convicted perjurer and sex trafficker Maxwell and Epstein. Their voices must be heard, above all. Virginia Duffrey died of suicide earlier this year.

I'm joined by a terrific group of reporters, CNN's Lauren Fox, Jeff Mason of Reuters, Sabrina Rodriguez of the Washington Post, and CNN's Jeff Zeleny. Jeff Zeleny, talk about this meeting tonight. It's quite interesting that, first of all, they're having a strategy session. Maybe less interesting that they're doing it, but more that -- it seems like it's at the highest levels, and the fact that we know that it's happening, it's almost as if they want their base to know, like we're on this. We're working on it. JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: It's exactly that. I mean, they could have a strategy meeting, and I'm guessing they have, we know they have for the last several weeks in Susie Wiles' office, the chief of staff's office. This has consumed the White House for the better part of a month.

So, the idea that they are having a meeting at the vice president's residence. This sort of gives a beat on the Epstein story that has been in demand, that looks like the White House is on top of this. Obviously, the one person not scheduled to be at the meeting is the person who largely controls the message, and that's the president himself.

So yes, the vice president can be talking about this. I mean, the most interesting thing, probably, is that the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is at this meeting. And he, of course, has sat down with Ghislaine Maxwell for nearly 10 hours in Florida. She was then moved to Texas.

So, it's clear that the White House wants the world to know that they are having this meeting tonight. Of course, it raises the specter having it being at the naval observatory, the official residence of the vice president, but again, it does not likely answer the most compelling questions. And again, the president will not be there, and he largely controls the strategy.

BASH: Go ahead.

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: I would just add to that that I think it's worth noting the fact that someone from the Justice Department is meeting at the vice president's office. It just underscores, again, how the Justice Department is an integral and integrated part of this administration, in a way that other Justice Departments have not been.

President Biden, President Obama, President Clinton, thinking back to the independent counsel then, all tried very hard to make -- to have there be a wall between the Justice Department and the White House, and that is just not the case here.

And it also, yesterday, President Trump was asked whether or not he had given the go ahead for Ghislaine Maxwell to be moved, whether he had known about it in advance. He said he hadn't. He said he learned about it the same time we did, but -- so maybe he's not having conversations with Mr. Blanche, but his vice president will tonight. He's going to get briefed.

[12:15:00]

BASH: Yeah. That's such a good point. We almost -- we take it for granted now because this has been the norm since Trump 2.0. There's been no attempt to separate the administration, the White House, and the political administration from the president, from the Justice Department, just the opposite.

I do want to go back to something that I mentioned, which is the question of who's going to be there and who's not going to be there. Let's listen to Jess Michaels, an Epstein victim who was on with Kaitlan Collins last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JESS MICHAELS, JEFFREY EPSTEIN SURVIVOR: We're being desensitized to the idea that sexual assault is not that big of a deal. It is the lack of an investigation into these Epstein files. There are survivors that have been giving, sharing their story for decades, sharing what happened. They did all the right things. They approached the authorities that they were supposed to approach. And it has been ignored over and over and over again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BASH: Lauren?

LAUREN FOX, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, I think one of the things that people have lost a little sight of, both on Capitol Hill and at the White House, is the fact that there are real women involved in these cases who are probably nervous in many cases, about all of this information being exposed. And there have been some efforts on Capitol Hill to try to make these subpoenas, so they include protections for victims.

But I mean, if you are sort of sitting on the edge of all of your trauma being exposed in a public way, I mean that is nerve wracking, and it is happening on the cusp of the fact that this is about making a decision politically, right? I mean, this isn't happening because it has to in this moment. This is a White House that is grappling with a political decision, and I think that that is what you're hearing from these victims and their families. I just think it's really a very difficult moment for people who know what has happened today, right?

BASH: Right. I mean, when you hear the president, whenever he's asked about this, he says something along the lines of -- well, I want things, the information to be released, but I just don't want people to get hurt, who shouldn't get hurt. And he doesn't specify who he's talking about. It sounds like he's talking about the people who are on the list, the high-profile people on the list, not necessarily the victims of Epstein and Maxwell.

SABRINA RODRIGUEZ, NATIONAL POLITICS REPORTER, THE WASHINGTON POST: Absolutely. I think one of the things though the White House is grappling with now is we've seen for weeks, they want to change the subject on this. They don't want to be focusing on this, and we've seen that they have had some success.

You know, my colleagues at the Washington Post earlier today released, you know, deep dive analysis on far-right internet activity that showed that, you know, in recent weeks, they've sort of been able to divert the subject, and there's a little less attention. Of course, what helps is Congress being on recess right now. But we also all know here that it's not going away. We just saw the subpoenas coming from the House Oversight Committee. So, the White House is kind of grappling with, OK, they want to put this to bed. They don't want, you know, they want to project the image of their moving forward without giving a lot of information, but they also have the reality that this isn't going away.

BASH: Well, you know, it's interesting. Our colleagues in their great reporting this morning mentioned that exact dynamic. I'm just going to read part of their story. One official told CNN that some of the conversation within the White House has focused on whether making the details from the interview public would bring the Epstein controversy back to the surface. Many officials close to Trump believe the story has largely died down. The interview, of course, going back to the beginning here is with Todd Blanche from the Justice Department and Maxwell.

ZELENY: Right. And this is one of the discussions that the benefit of having this discussion out loud, it looks like the White House is focusing on this. It looks like they're not trying to brush it under the rug. We'll see if it's ever released. But the -- for all the new questions that hang over this, including the subpoenas that Lauren was reporting on yesterday.

This is not going away anytime soon, because of, you know, there's about to be a potential confrontation with the congressional committee and the Department of Justice as well, several people who were not on that to list.

I'm thinking back to Alex Acosta, who, of course, was a member of the Trump cabinet. The first time around, he was the assistant U.S. attorney -- the U.S. attorney, excuse me, in Florida at the time when a relatively light deal was given to Jeffrey Epstein back in the day.

So, this has legs in every respect. The bigger question politically is it's really not coming up as much at town halls across the country. It's coming up a bit. We've played some of those exchanges, but it's not the dominating force for the American public. I still think they're focused on the economy and other things.

[12:20:00]

So, the Trump administration, even though they don't want to talk about the slowdown in the economy, in some respects, that is slightly better, but it's more worrisome to a broader section of the public.

MASON: The story -- the White House doesn't think the story is going away, if they're holding a meeting at J.D. Vance's house, it's just -- they don't. And you wouldn't be letting people know that the chief of staff is coming over for dinner with the vice president if -- if they're not still very worried about the narrative and still, you know, crafting a strategy.

So, yeah, I read The Washington Post story about it, and I'm sure that some do feel that it's getting a few less headlines. But I think the fact of this meeting tonight underscores how much it is still at the top of their agenda and still a big concern for them and their politics. RODRIGUEZ: And I think one striking detail from CNN's reporting this morning is even that they're debating, potentially going on Joe Rogan's podcast and having this discussion. This shows exactly who the segment of the population is that they want to get this in front of them.

BASH: It's a very narrow but very powerful ecosystem for them. Everybody, stand by, because we are continuing to monitor the breaking news out of Fort Stewart. And we have some new information we're going to bring you after a short break. Don't go anywhere.

[12:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BASH: Getting an update on the breaking news at Fort Stewart in Georgia, where we're learning about more on the active shooter situation. CNN's Isabel Rosales is back with us. Isabel, what is the latest?

ROSALES: Dana, we have new reporting from my colleagues Ryan Young and Mark Morales that the shooter is no longer a threat. That is from two law enforcement sources, and again, that's from my colleagues Ryan Young and Mark Morales hearing that that shooter no longer a threat. Now we know that the U.S. Army's Fort Stewart is under lockdown. Still that is, according to the police spokesperson, who also said that the incident is centering around the second Armored Brigade Combat Team area.

That person told us, CNN, that this is connected to an active shooter. But again, the newest update is that that shooter is no longer a threat. Now, the Fort Worth Facebook page, they posted on there that casualties have been reported, and we've seen from the site right here. You're seeing this video of the U.S. Army emergency medical service and ambulance with its lights on, sirens on, speeding at a high rate, beyond Fort Stewart, presumably to a hospital there. All gates currently within Fort Stewart are closed.

Let me give you a bit of background information about Fort Stewart. This is the largest army installation east of the Mississippi. You're talking about over 280,000 acres, according to their website, a large area that also employs a ton of people, over 25,000 people, and on top of that, more than 10,000 soldiers, army, civilians, family members, who reside there at the base.

This is also home to the Third Infantry Division. They train at Fort Stewart, active and reserve army units. And I think we have a map as well where you can see that the Fort Stewart is just about 40 miles southwest of Savannah, Georgia. Obviously, a very serious situation happening here, reports of casualties, reports now from law enforcement sources that that shooter is no longer a threat. We're making the phone calls, and we have a crew going on the ground right now too to try to get more details as to what happened here, Dana?

BASH: OK, thank you. The headline, of course, with this update from you Isabel, is that authorities there are saying that the active shooter is no longer a threat. We don't know exactly what that means, and certainly, we don't know what it means when it comes to the casualties. Isabel again, stick with us. I want to go back to Juliette Kayyem. Juliette, what does this information tell you?

KAYYEM: Well, there's a gap between the statement that the active shooter is no longer a threat, and the fact they're still under lockdown. That will mean they want to ensure that there's no other potential shooters or other shooters or dangers on the facility, as they will clearly want to reopen it, get people out and about. They are all under lockdown in response to the fact that at least the person who was originally the threat is no longer that.

The questions, the Pentagon will have right now are, was this an interior threat as the facility was described -- as a fort was described these are -- these are many cities. They've got -- they've got not just military, they've got family members, kids. They've got civilians. They've got private sector, people running the restaurants, people running gyms. I mean, they've -- these are active and vibrant facilities.

So, there's lots of people coming in and out. They all should be badged. They all should have security clearances. And so, figuring out whether the threat was internal, someone that was known to the facility, either someone in the military, related to the military, or a vendor or contractor, is going to be key or did someone breach, some outsider breach security. Both of those are relevant for force protection. That's what we care about in terms of the Pentagon, want to protect the service members and also their families.

[12:30:00]