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Deputy Atty. General To Meet Ghislaine Maxwell For 2nd Day; Stocks' Record Run Defies Global Volatility, Trade Tensions; Zuckerberg Embarks On High-Dollar Recruiting Spree For Meta's A.I. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired July 25, 2025 - 11:00   ET

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

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[11:01:44]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now, breaking news. Quote, something I haven't thought about. That's the message from President Trump today when asked if a presidential pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell is even on the table. Those new comments come as the U.S. Justice Department is back for another day of interviewing Jeffrey Epstein's accomplice and convicted sex trafficker.

Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer, Pamela Brown has the day off, and you're in The Situation Room.

And we begin this hour with the breaking news and another busy morning in the Jeffrey Epstein case. For the second straight day, the Deputy Attorney General of the United States, Todd Blanche, is meeting with Epstein's former girlfriend and accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.

New video this morning shows Maxwell's attorney, David Markus, arriving at the U.S. Attorney's Office in Tallahassee, near the prison -- near the prison where she is serving a 20-year sentence for child sex trafficking. Here's her attorney, listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID MARKUS, ATTORNEY FOR GHISLAINE MAXWELL: Ghislaine has been treated unfairly for over five years now. If you looked up scapegoat in the dictionary, her face would be next to the definition -- next to the dictionary definition of it. So, you know, we're grateful for this opportunity to finally be able to say what really happened, and that's what we're going to do yesterday and today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Also new this morning, President Trump fielded questions on the case as he left the White House. He says he is not considering, at least for now, a pardon of Maxwell or commuting her sentence. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you consider a pardon or a commutation for Ghislaine Maxwell if she cooperated?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's something I haven't thought about. It's really something --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you recommend it?

TRUMP: I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I have not thought about.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But you wouldn't rule it out, sir?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, why --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN legal analyst, Carrie Cordero, is here with me in the Situation Room. Carrie, the President says he hasn't considered a pardon or commuting Maxwell's sentence, but why else would she think, with her lawyer, go ahead and meet with the deputy attorney general? That's what she would like to get, a reduced sentence. She's serving 20 years in prison.

CARRIE CORDERO, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Sure, at this point, that's the only motivation that she would have, is if she thinks there's some possibility that she could say something that would work in her interest. And as the President said in his statement just there, he does have the power to do it.

In my judgment, there is absolutely no reason at all for the President to consider a pardon in this case. She was convicted. She is serving her 20-year sentence. And if she had anything of value to say, the time for her to have said it would have been during her own criminal case, not this much later in time.

BLITZER: We don't know, but what do you think she and the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, are discussing yesterday and today?

CORDERO: Look, I think it's a big question mark, why the deputy attorney general is even down there spending his time on this. I look at this, Wolf, from the perspective of, what's the Justice Department doing? Why is the Justice Department even spending a minute of the deputy attorney general's time on this case?

He's interviewing her because, obviously, they want to be able to definitively give advice to the President, and they want to control the information that is received from his -- from the interviews. But in my judgment, there are so many other priorities that the Justice Department should be dealing with, and this is just a complete and utter waste of the deputy attorney general's time.

[11:05:14]

BLITZER: And he's the number two official in the Justice Department. CORDERO: He is.

BLITZER: The Deputy Attorney General of the United States.

CORDERO: Right.

BLITZER: Where do you ultimately see these talks between him and Maxwell going?

CORDERO: Look, as I said, I think that if she had anything of value to say to prosecutors that potentially could implicate other people in the criminal matter, not who Jeffrey Epstein hung out with 20 years ago, but in the actual criminal case, she is a convicted felon in terms of the sex trafficking that went on.

There's nothing that came out in the case that indicates that she should deserve any kind of pardon or leniency. And if she had anything of value, the motivation for her to have provided that information would have been during her criminal case so that she could get a -- a leaner sentence or favorable treatment back then.

BLITZER: Should we read anything into the fact that she was taken out of the Tallahassee prison where she's serving 20 years right now and taken to the state attorney's office in Tallahassee for this interview that was taking place outside of the prison? Could have been taking place inside the prison, too.

CORDERO: Yes, I think that has more to do with the deputy attorney general than it has to do with her. So, for example, in this case, then he controls whether or not I don't know whether or not the interview is recorded or whether it's just a transcript.

It also is relevant for the deputy attorney general's sort of security and comfort himself. It's a more controlled environment for his security team. So I -- I think it has more to do with him than it does with her.

BLITZER: Good point, Carrie. Thank you very, very much. Carrie Cordero with all the legal analysis for us.

Also new this morning, economic uncertainty has been driven by trade fears, geopolitical concerns and a shaky housing market here in the United States. However, on Wall Street, U.S. stocks keep churning higher and higher. Since the April lows markets have rallied and are now trading at record levels.

The Nasdaq and S&P 500 closing at record highs yesterday and the Dow inching closer and closer to a new record today. For more on this, we're joined by CNN business and politics correspondent Vanessa Yurkevich. Vanessa, can you unpack the factors driving market resiliency in today's climate?

VANESSA YURKEVICH, CNN BUSINESS & POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, we're just about 200 points away from a new record on the Dow. The last record set in December. And you can see they're up about almost 100 points, so about 200 points or so away from a new record. As you mentioned, S&P, Nasdaq making a record just yesterday. And just look at where we came from. You now have all three indices trading above where we were when Trump was inaugurated. But look at that deep V in the months of March and April when there was so much economic turmoil around tariffs.

But largely, investors have very much moved past that. They believe that trade is on good footing. They believe that they're seeing some deals being made. And they very much believe that the President doesn't plan on firing the head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, which was a big concern for them.

There are some investors that, yes, are concerned that the markets are getting a little too hot right now, but they do not expect a correction. They do not expect a big drop. They maybe expect a little dip, but they are really looking at a lot of the earnings that we're seeing from companies right now. And it's looking good so far, Wolf.

BLITZER: So what should investors be watching for, let's say, in the coming week?

YURKEVICH: In the coming week, we are getting a lot of data and we're getting more earnings reports from key companies like Apple. We are also getting PCE. That's the Federal Reserve's preferred measure of inflation. We are also going to get the first reading of second quarter GDP. We also have the jobs report. We have the Fed meeting next week and deciding what they're going to do with rates.

And of course, we have August 1st approaching. That is the deadline for those reciprocal pauses on tariffs when we will hear from the Trump administration about what they are going to do with tariffs with hundreds of companies -- countries rather. So investors are going to have a lot of data to parse through.

One thing that I have heard from investors is they do believe that the economy is on good footing right now. But of course, one piece of data can sort of change the momentum. Critically, though, they're going to be paying attention to earnings that are coming out next week. And of course, what the Federal Reserve decides to do in their critical meeting next week, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, we'll see what Trump decides to do about Jerome Powell, the Federal Reserve chair that could have a huge impact on the markets as well. All right, Vanessa Yurkevich, thank you very, very much.

And still ahead, the need for aid in Gaza is clearly intensifying by the hour. Palestinian health officials say people are dying every day from starvation. The desperation for millions of people in Gaza to find the basic need of food and water. We have new information.

[11:10:01]

Plus, a push from the White House to be the global leader in artificial intelligence. Big tech companies are rushing to make A.I. smarter than human. We'll take a deeper dive into the attempt to reach artificial super intelligence. Stay with us. You're in The Situation Room.

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[11:14:59]

BLITZER: Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg is going all in on A.I. Facebook's parent company is investing huge sums of money to try and build a top- tier team of researchers and engineers, while also hoping to lure top talent away from key rivals like OpenAI. CNN's Clare Duffy is digging into all of this for us. Clare, what's behind Zuckerberg's decision to invest so heavily right now in A.I.?

CLARE DUFFY, CNN BUSINESS WRITER: Yes, Wolf, Mark Zuckerberg really wants Meta to be the first company to reach what's called artificial super intelligence.

This is sort of a nebulous concept, but it's generally considered to be A.I. that is smarter than all humans. And there now is this sort of all-out talent war. It's almost like these A.I. companies are becoming like basketball teams, spending multi-million dollar pay packages to attract these top researchers.

Of course, Meta is also spending hundreds of billions of dollars to build out A.I. data centers, build out A.I. chips, and now the company is on this hiring spree that really kicked off with the $14 billion investment in the A.I. startup Scale A.I. They hired away its CEO. And now the company has managed to hire away top A.I. researchers and software engineers away from the likes of Google, OpenAI, Apple, Anthropic, and Scale A.I., as you see there.

And so Mark Zuckerberg is both building out this all-star team for himself, but also potentially benefiting his company by drawing some of those top researchers away from his biggest rivals, Wolf.

BLITZER: So, Clare, how else is Meta trying to transform its business right now to keep up in the constantly evolving tech industry?

DUFFY: Yes, Mark Zuckerberg really wants for Meta to be more than just a social media company, and you'll remember just a few years ago the company completely rebranded with the idea of chasing and building out the Metaverse. That has proven to be sort of an unsuccessful bid. And so now Meta is going all in on artificial intelligence, and the stakes are pretty high here for Mark Zuckerberg.

I mean, he's built out these massive data centers. He needs to have the A.I. models to make use of those A.I. data centers. He's also building out this devices business, building out smart glasses. Those require top-tier A.I. models to operate. And then, of course, A.I. is benefiting his core business by making Meta even better at serving targeted ads to customers on social media. All of those things are going to rely on his company staying ahead in this A.I. race.

BLITZER: All right, good explanation. Clare Duffy, thank you very, very much.

Meanwhile, an $8 billion year-long saga is now over. The Trump administration has officially approved Paramount Global's merger with Skydance Media, and it paves the way for Skydance CEO, David Ellison, to take control of Paramount in the coming weeks. The merger's review process has been criticized over allegations of political interference. Just last week, CBS, which is owned by Paramount, announced the "Late Show with Stephen Colbert" would be canceled.

Colbert is a frequent critic of the President. And "The Daily Show" host Jon Stewart had this to say about it. Listen.

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JON STEWART, HOST, "THE DAILY SHOW": The fact that CBS didn't try to save their number-one-rated network late-night franchise that's been on the air for over three decades is part of what's making everybody wonder, was this purely financial? Or maybe the path of least resistance for your $8 billion merger.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: And joining us now, CNN media analyst and Axios media correspondent, Sara Fischer. Sara, what do we know about how this merger ultimately got across the finish line and was approved by the Trump administration?

SARA FISCHER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA ANALYST: Yes, well, in the past few days, the CEO of Skydance Media, David Ellison, has been working really hard to get in touch with the FCC, its chairman, Brendan Carr, and essentially pledge his commitment to meeting the FCC standards around what they would approve for a merger.

Those include hiring an ombudsman for CBS. It includes certain parameters around its commitment to local news. Remember, CBS has local affiliate stations all over the country. And it also includes a commitment not to add any new DEI policies to the new company.

Skydance does not itself have DEI policies, but you might recall Paramount, CBS's parent, rolled back some of its policies facing some of this pressure from the Trump administration. Those pledges, Wolf, is what led the FCC to ultimately approve this deal and get Skydance and Paramount finally to a place where they could get this deal to go forward.

BLITZER: What are you hearing, Sara, what are you hearing will happen next with these two companies?

FISCHER: Well, anytime you have a big merger, Wolf, you know this is going to be a lot of synergies, so we should expect that there will be some jobs that are lost, particularly on the back end, sales, financial, all of that. But we know that some key executives are slated to leave. Chris McCarthy, who's been with Paramount, formerly Viacom, for over two decades, leading MTV, he will be exiting the company.

[11:19:58]

We should expect more high-level departures. And then additionally, I do think we should expect a little bit different programming. I mean, you're seeing this now with CBS pulling the plug on the late night, a bunch of key executives leaving "60 Minutes," although they just named a new executive producer. I don't know that this sort of crown jewel Tiffany network will look quite the same under its new owners.

BLITZER: All right, Sara Fischer reporting for us. Thank you very, very much.

Up next, the World Health Organization says Gaza is facing a man-made mass starvation situation right now. A number -- the number of people starving to death is clearly on the rise. We're going to talk about the attempt to get aid to those most impacted. Stay with us.

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[11:25:19]

BLITZER: New this morning, Israel says it plans to allow airdrops of badly needed aid into Gaza, quote, in the coming days. That according to an Israeli security official.

The shift comes as the humanitarian crisis in Gaza deepens by the day. Images like this illustrate the growing desperation for hungry Palestinians. The health -- the health ministry there says dozens have died from starvation and malnutrition just this week.

And those ceasefire talks are ongoing. There's no end in sight for the people of Gaza. More now from CNN's Jeremy Diamond and a warning, you may find the images in his report disturbing.

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JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN JERUSALEM CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): There are no bullet holes or shrapnel wounds marking this man's body. His bears the signs of a far more silent killer, starvation. At 41 years old, Mohammed al-Hassanat (ph) is one of at least 45 Palestinians who have died of malnutrition in just the last week, according to the Palestinian health ministry, an entirely manmade humanitarian crisis in Gaza now reaching unprecedented levels.

The question now is not whether starvation will claim more lives, but who will be its next victim? Most food stocks have run dry. Malnutrition cases are skyrocketing, and there is only so much Gaza's under-resourced hospitals can do.

At one of the few soup kitchens still serving meals, the growing desperation of Gaza's population of more than 2 million is clear as day. Twenty-eight Western nations, more than 100 humanitarian aid organizations and top U.N. officials have all said Israeli policies are to blame for the starvation crisis now unfolding. That's because Israel imposed a total siege of Gaza between March and May.

And since then, Israeli restrictions on the entry and distribution of aid have snowballed into an utterly avoidable disaster. DR. TEDROS ADHANOM GHEBREYESUS, WHO Director-General: I don't know what you would call it other than starvation. And it's manmade. And that's very clear. And this is because of blockade.

DIAMOND (voice-over): Israel denies it is using starvation as a weapon, pointing to hundreds of aid trucks inside Gaza awaiting U.N. pickup. The U.N. says Israeli authorities have repeatedly failed to authorize safe routes to pick up those stockpiles. But the reality of starvation is impossible to deny, including for Israeli news channels, which rarely broadcast such images.

Fadia Abunamus (ph) has been in line since 6:00 a.m., hoping to fill a pot of lentil soup to feed the nine members of her family. We've had enough of starvation and oppression, enough of staying in the streets like dogs, where no one looks at us, where we can't find anything for our children to eat or drink.

Signs of hunger are everywhere in Gaza. This man collapsed while sifting through the wreckage of the latest Israeli offensive. He says he hasn't eaten anything lately but scraps of bread. Moments later, his body gives out on him again. He's simply too weak to go on.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, Tel Aviv.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Horrible situation indeed. We're joined now by Tjada D'Oyen McKenna. She's the CEO of Mercy Corps, a global team of humanitarians, working on the front lines of the world's biggest crises, including, of course, Gaza.

Jada, thank you so much for coming in. Every day we're hearing more and more about the starvation that's on the ground. What is your team -- team personally seeing when they are there?

TJADA D'OYEN MCKENNA, CEO, MERCY CORP: Our team is feeling the effects of the starvation themselves. Our team is -- wakes up every morning just like everyone else, wondering where they're going to get their next meal. Some of the things we've heard, we've heard mothers say to us that their children are asking if there's food in heaven, if that would better.

One team member talked about seeing a girl filling up water at a water tank right next to a sewage area. So standing in knee deep sewage, trying to get clean water. We visit families and say everyone in the family has infections, scars, sicknesses, all that from lack of clean water. And on top of systems that are people that are depleted from lack of food.

BLITZER: Because we know that dozens and dozens of humanitarian groups are warning that doctors, journalists, aid workers are going hungry alongside what's going on in Gaza right now. And I know your team is having a tough time coping as well.

[11:29:59] MCKENNA: Yes, yes, for sure. They're -- they're like everybody else. The little food that is available that the March blockade that the Israelis put in also affected commercial goods, the little food that is available --