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Trump Doubles Down Attacks On Four Democratic Congresswomen; How Lawmakers Are Preparing For Robert Mueller's Testimony; Mayors Across Puerto Rico Now Spending Festivities Celebrating Puerto Rico's Constitution Day In Protest; El Chapo's Life In A Supermax Prison; Eight People Injured When Lightning Strikes Florida Beach; PTSD Survivor Turns To CNN Hero For Help; The 2020 Race: When Debates Get Crowded, Awkward And Chaotic; CNN Original Series, "The Movies." Aired 4-5p ET

Aired July 21, 2019 - 16:00   ET

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


[16:00:28] MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN HOST: Hello. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Martin Savidge in for Fredricka Whitfield.

Right now, President Trump is preparing to board Air Force One and return to the White House after a weekend he spent in New Jersey where he launched a fresh assault on four Democratic congresswomen of color.

Today's Twitter rant comes one week after the president's racist attack against four congresswomen sparked racist chants at his rally. Today he's questioning their patriotism and distorting what they've said. The president tweeting, "I don't believe the four congresswomen are capable of loving our country. They should apologize to America and Israel for the horrible hateful things they have said. They are destroying the Democratic Party but are weak and insecure people who can never destroy our great nation."

Today a top Democrat and civil rights icon accused the president of stoking racial fears and division while many Republicans simply tried to move on from the controversy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D-MD): I've never in my total of 37 years in public service ever heard a constituent say that they were scared of their leader.

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ABC NEWS HOST, "THIS WEEK": Scared of their leader, scared of the president of the United States?

CUMMINGS: Of the -- president of the United States, that's exactly right.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you believe President Trump is racist?

CUMMINGS: And I've been in politics 37 years. Go ahead, what did you say?

STEPHANOPOULOS: Do you believe President Trump is a racist? CUMMINGS: I believe he is -- yes, no doubt about it.

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): I would say in general the whole America love it or leave it is not a new sentiment. You know, back in the '60s that wasn't considered racist. I just find it very unfortunate that so many parts of our public debate right now are getting immediately stuck inside a racial framework when what I would like to see is us moving towards that color-blind society.

I was hoping when President Obama was elected it'd really go a long way toward healing the racial divide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Vice President Pence is also coming to President Trump's defense, vowing that the president will not stay silent if another racist chant breaks out at one of his rallies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Major, the president was very clear.

MAJOR GARRETT, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, CBS NEWS: Was he?

PENCE: That he wasn't happy about it and if it happened again he might -- he'd make an effort to speak out about it.

GARRETT: He will make an effort to speak out?

PENCE: That's what he's already said.

GARRETT: OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: CNN White House Reporter, Sarah Westwood is in New Jersey.

And Sarah, it appears the president is I guess not ready to put this controversy behind him.

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Martin. President Trump is definitely not backing away from those attacks on the four Democratic House freshmen known as the Squad. And they're sending Stephen Miller out to defend the president out against criticism of those attacks being racist.

Now, Stephen Miller is someone who seldom steps in front of a camera to defend the president but who is very influential behind the scenes particularly when it comes to Trump's immigration agenda. And on "FOX News Sunday" today Miller argued that just because the president is criticizing congresswomen who are minorities that doesn't mean that his criticism is inherently racist.

Miller also accused Democrats of throwing around the word racist too often in order to silence critics. Take a listen. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS WALLACE, FOX NEWS HOST: Why shouldn't someone see all of that as racist?

STEPHEN MILLER, SENIOR TRUMP ADVISER: I think the term racist, Chris, has become a label that is too often deployed by the left, Democrats, in this country simply to try to silence and punish and suppress people they disagree with, speech that they don't want to hear. The reality is that this president has been a president for all Americans.

All the people in that audience and millions of patriotic Americans all across this country are tired of being beat up, condescended to, looked down upon, talked down to by members of Congress on the left in Washington, D.C. and their allies in many corners of the media.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WESTWOOD: And Miller also highlighted the fact that President Trump has since disavowed those racist chants of "send her back" that broke out at his rally in North Carolinas on Wednesday. As we just heard Vice President Mike Pence also pointing to the fact that Trump has tried to distance himself, although we have seen some mixed messaging from the president when it comes to those chants.

Trump saying he was unhappy with the chants but also defending those who expressed that sentiment as incredible patriots. Trump heard from aides and allies, lawmakers, even his own daughter Ivanka Trump over the past week in the wake of those chants, though, that he should do something to try to distance himself that perhaps that wasn't worth the political cost. Republicans were finding it difficult to defend against those racist chants.

But sources tell CNN, Martin, that Trump does view his initial attacks on the four Democratic congresswomen as a political success and he wants to continue trying to make them the face of the Democratic Party.

[16:05:08] SAVIDGE: And he was working on that very hard again today with his tweets.

All right. Sarah Westwood, thank you very much.

With me now is Michael Shear, he's White House correspondent for "The New York Times" and a CNN political analyst, and Catherine Rampell. She is an opinion columnist for the "Washington Post" and also a CNN political commentator.

MICHAEL SHEAR, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Thanks to both of you for joining me.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good to be here.

Sure. Yes, absolutely.

SAVIDGE: Catherine, let me start with you. The president is not only continuing his attacks on these congresswomen but now he is trying to definitely change the narrative, changing this controversy which originally had been focused on race and ethnicity, now to turning it one into patriotism. And I'm wondering, is anyone really buying this turn?

RAMPELL: Look, it's obviously a cheap shot to say the least, to question the love that these congresswomen have for their country. We have known since the days of Shakespeare go back and, you know, re- open your King Lear from high school, that dissent and criticism are not a sign of lack of love and in the converse praise and flattery are not a sign of adoration and love. And of course Trump himself has been very critical of the United States. That's not why I would question, you know, whether he is the right person for the White House, for example.

But I think beyond all of that, the thing we should be paying much closer attention to besides his words that denote bigotry and racism, is actually his actions including in the past week alone on immigration. The raids, basically gutting our entire asylum system by extra legal fiat, by trying to redirect resources away from USCIS's legal immigration processing system to ICE, and processing of undocumented immigrants.

So there are all of these things that he's actually doing that if he wants us to focus on the substance of his policies and whether those are racist or whether those denote xenophobia, I am more than happy to do so.

SAVIDGE: It appears, Michael, that he is adding a new theme here that is going to define his side in 2020 and that is patriotism. Vote for me, and you're patriotic. If you vote for the Democrats, clearly they are not. Is that a simple message but an effective one?

SHEAR: Well, I mean I think it's potentially an effective message, but it can't be divorced from history and from the history both before he became president and then also the tenure over the last two and a half years. And so I think that when you look at his use of attacking people for their patriotism it gets commingled oftentimes with race and ethnicity.

And so, you know, whether you're talking about his attacks on black football players who kneeled, you know, or the immigration issue where so often his attacks are on people -- immigrants or people who have a different ethnicity or this current situation where it's attacks on, you know, four women of color who are members of Congress.

The questioning of patriotism often gets mixed up with -- you know, with ethnicity and race. And so he can't escape -- just by saying and for Stephen Miller to say, well, look, this is completely divorced by any question of race or ethnicity, this is only about a person's patriotism, it doesn't really stand up to sort of the smell test for many people because they've seen the pattern before.

SAVIDGE: And Democrats are certainly not going to let go of that.

Senator Cory Booker is running for president, as we know, among a number, and today had some pretty strong words for the president's attacks. Let's listen and talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-NJ), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The reality is this is a guy who is worse than a racist. He's actually using racist tropes and racial language for political gains. Trying to use this as a weapon to divide our nation against itself. We have a demagogue fear-mongering person who's using race to divide, and this is a referendum not on him. It's actually a referendum on the heart and soul of our country. Who are we going to be and who are we going to be to each other?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Catherine, if the 2020 election turns into a referendum on Trump and race, how do you think Republicans will react?

RAMPELL: This reminds me a little bit of the 2012 autopsy report as some of the viewers may recall. After Mitt Romney lost that race, Republicans went back and looked at what went wrong, right, and what did they need to do for the future -- for future elections given the demographic trends in the United States, given how the existing base was evolving.

What did they need to do to evolve and adapt and win elections? And one of the things that was recommended again after the 2012 election was that they needed to back off of the xenophobic rhetoric, right.

[16:10:06] That that was going to appeal to an existing part of their base but not broaden the number of voters who were interested in them including of course ethnic minorities, descendants of immigrants, naturalized immigrants as well as other demographic groups including more moderate women, suburban women. You know, that that kind of, you know, dog whistling tendency that some Republicans had at the time was not going to pay off in the long run.

And I think we have seen that Trump obviously doubled down on that in 2016. He lost the popular vote. He won the electoral college, of course. But he has alienated a lot of these groups that could be much more important to him as again the country evolves.

SAVIDGE: Right.

RAMPELL: And as 2012 approaches, you could imagine that this will backfire on him as more of those white suburban women stay home and as well as Hispanics and blacks and others might be more motivated to vote for the opposition.

SAVIDGE: Michael, real quick, and we're almost out of time. And you cover the White House. What are you hearing behind the scenes there because this has to really cause some stomach upset?

SHEAR: Well, it causes stomach upset but there's also I think a sense in the White House that there's some opportunity here. If they can message this in a way that focuses on socialism and patriotism, I think they think that it's a winner. If it remains, you know, kind of the sense of people that are watching in the electorate, that this is a racist situation, that racism play, then I think it backfires on the president, and they're worried about it.

And so the question is, you know, we see what it is now. What we don't know is what's this going be a week from now, a month from now, six months from now. How does this evolve? And, you know, we know the president keeps changing the news cycle and it only lasts a few hours before there's some other thing that comes along. And so we just don't know how it's going to play out.

SAVIDGE: Michael Shear and Catherine Rampell, thank you both.

SHEAR: Sure.

SAVIDGE: Still ahead, get set for Robert Mueller's highly anticipated testimony. It's going to be this week on Capitol Hill. The big question, will he stick to the four corners of his report on Russian interference in the U.S. elections or step out of the box? We'll discuss next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:16:01] SAVIDGE: A 22-month investigation, a 448-page legal report, and then you've got one man at the center of it all, Special Counsel Robert Mueller. With his testimony just days away the House chairmen of both the Judiciary and Intelligence Committees hope that hearing from Mueller will give Americans a better understanding of his findings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): The report supports very substantial evidence that the president is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and we have to present -- or that Mueller present those facts to the American people and then see where we go from there because the administration must be held accountable and no president can be above the law.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): We want Bob Mueller to bring it to life, to talk about what's in that report. It's a pretty damning set of facts that involve a presidential campaign in a close race welcoming help from a hostile foreign power, not reporting it but eagerly embracing it, building it into their campaign strategy, lying about it to cover up, then obstructing an investigation into foreign interference again to try to cover up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: The stakes of course are high for both Democrats and Republicans. And CNN Senior Congressional Correspondent, Manu Raju shows how they're preparing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Lawmakers are intensely preparing for the most anticipated hearing in decades when Special Counsel Robert Mueller testifies about the findings of his two-year investigation.

Democrats and Republicans both sharpening their questions and their strategy as they hold mock hearings with top aides sitting in as Mueller.

CNN has learned that Democrats in the House Judiciary Committee will focus on five areas of potential obstruction of justice laid out in the Mueller report, including Trump's order to then White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Mueller, his efforts to have McGahn deny that the president had ordered him to have the special counsel removed. Also Trump's order to former campaign manager Cory Lewandowski to tell the then attorney general Jeff Sessions to limit the investigation to exclude the president. And later threatening to fire Sessions if he did not meet with Lewandowski.

There are also episodes in the Mueller report of alleged witness tampering including Trump encouraging former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen not to cooperate with federal prosecutors.

NADLER: Just as he says what was in the report and says it to the American people so they hear it, that would be very, very important.

RAJU: Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee plan to press Mueller about the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 election and contacts between Russians and the Trump campaign, and will ask Mueller about his finding that Trump publicly expressed skepticism that Russia was responsible for the hacks at the same time that he and other campaign officials privately sought information about any further planned WikiLeaks releases of printed campaign e-mails.

(On camera): Do you think that he'll go beyond the report?

SCHIFF: Well, we're going to ask some questions beyond the report, we're going to expect him to answer.

RAJU (voice-over): With the stakes enormous Democrats say they are preparing carefully, rereading the entire 448-page report.

REP. JIM HIMES (D-CT): This is not going to be a whole bunch of members freelancing, this will be organized.

RAJU: Republicans meanwhile planned to press the special counsel about whether his team was biased as well as anti-Trump texts sent by FBI agents Peter Strzok and FBI attorney Lisa Page.

REP. MATT GAETZ (R-FL): I think we got a lot of questions about how Robert Mueller's team was assembled.

RAJU: And they planned to raise questions about why the investigations started in the first place.

REP. DOUG COLLINS (R-GA): There's some basic questions of understand the conclusion, you've got to understand where it started.

RAJU: But Mueller has already indicated he won't go beyond the four corners of his report.

ANDREW MCCABE, FORMER FBI DEPUTY DIRECTOR: Director Mueller will be impeccably prepared. He's not a verbose and dramatic witness but he knows his stuff.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Now some Democrats have tried to actually lower expectations ahead of Wednesday's hearing. Jim Himes, for one, told me don't expect much news out of the hearing. Others believe it could reshape the impeachment debate going forward.

Now Nancy Pelosi behind closed doors has said something different. She has said approach this calmly. I'm told she told that to her Democratic colleagues, approach this seriously, don't raise expectations, don't lower expectations.

[16:20:05] But ultimately question could be whether or not Pelosi shifts of her opposition to moving forward an impeachment inquiry. At the moment expectations are she will not move off that opposition -- Martin.

SAVIDGE: Manu Raju, thank you very much for that.

To discuss this, CNN Legal Analyst and former Federal Prosecutor, Renato Mariotti. He joins me now.

I guess I would start by asking you, sort of where Manu left off, and that is, do you think there will be any major brake throughs during this testimony, or aren't we really building expectations too high?

RENATO MARIOTTI, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Yes, I would be surprised if there are major revelations. If there are to come it'll probably be in response to questions from Republican congressmen and women because they are going to be asking questions I think that are a little bit more outside the box. In other words, I expect Democratic members of Congress to be focused on what's in the report. They want to get that report in front of the public.

I think either a lot of Republicans who are interested, for example, in how the investigation came to be, things that are not really discussed in the report, FISA issues, things like that. Mueller may refuse to answer any of those questions. If he does, he may make some news. But --

(CROSSTALK)

SAVIDGE: But trying to cast doubt on the legitimacy why it all began in the first place.

MARIOTTI: Exactly right. And if Mueller chooses to defend his investigation and defend his staff and so on, then I could see him saying things that are not in the report and perhaps making news in doing so. But he may also just not entertain those questions in which case really it's going to be a lot of summary and discussion of what is in the report. SAVIDGE: Democrats I presume have to approach this, you know, sort of

from your legal background with the idea that he's almost a hostile witness, right?

MARIOTTI: Well, you know, I wouldn't -- if they're smart they would not handle it that way. What I would do if I were them is try to use his answers to get out some of the stories that are in the report that are very damning for the president. So it's a problem obviously for the president that he ordered a witness to create a false record, that he tried to fire Mueller, that he tried to limit the scope of the Mueller investigation and so on.

And so Democrats I think if they're doing this right are going to ask Mueller a series of questions, you know, a repeated series of questions that get these stories in front of the American people because most people haven't read the report and as we saw the last time Mueller went on the air it had a big impact. Even though Mueller was mostly repeating his report, people changed their views and there was a renewed focus on what was in the report.

SAVIDGE: One of the issues I have is with kind of the way the program works for these in that the line of questions, you get five minutes. First Democrat and then a Republican. So you're going to be whipsawed back and forth. He's going to be whipsawed back and forth. Can you really develop an effective line of questioning when you've got five minutes and you know it's going to abruptly end?

MARIOTTI: That's a really great question. I agree with you in terms of the format. Obviously I'm a very experienced questioner. I could do -- I could get one line of questioning out in five minutes. Candidly I have helped some members of Congress in the past in developing questions and when I did that it was limited to try to come up with a series of five to eight questions that they could ask within their time period and make one specific point. It's very hard to do.

SAVIDGE: Yes. You have to be extremely disciplined in that questioning.

Renato Mariotti, great to talk to you. Thank you.

MARIOTTI: Thank you.

SAVIDGE: And don't forget that CNN will of course have special coverage of the Mueller hearings Wednesday starting 8:00 a.m. Eastern Time right here.

Still ahead, tensions in Puerto Rico now reaching a boiling point. Protesters are planning massive protests this week calling for their governor to resign. We're there live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:27:40] SAVIDGE: As for calls for Puerto Rico governor Ricardo Rossello to resign grow, mayors across the island are now spending festivities celebrating Puerto Rico's Constitution Day in protest. Many across Puerto Rico are outraged after a series of offensive chats

sent between the governor and his inner circle were made public. A massive protest is expected tomorrow.

CNN's Senior National Correspondent, Nick Paton Walsh is live in San Juan this afternoon.

Nick, demands for the governor's resignation continue to grow louder and louder.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Democratic candidates joining even some of his own staff here who say he should step down. And that will be the focus of tomorrow's protest on a key expressway into San Juan City. (INAUDIBLE) can get a million people out to shut that down. Malls around it are closing, some businesses are closing, warning of traffic delays. Federal offices are closed. Local government employees are being told to come to work.

And I've got to tell you, this noise is just a little bit of what we're going to hear tomorrow. But we've been out of the capital itself to see how the protest movement against Governor Rossello isn't something limited to just this small set of streets in the old town. Here's what we saw.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH (voice-over): Truth to power outside Puerto Rico's Congress. But it's the truth of what the power thinks of its people. Protesters reading out loud the misogynistic, homophobic and downright nasty chat messages of Governor Ricardo Rossello's mail in a circle. All 900 leaked pages of them.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It made us believe that the way that he expressed a lot of contempt for the general population. Just about to hit the 64-page line so --

WALSH (on camera): So he could be out of power before you even get a chance to finish reading them?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Faster.

WALSH: But really these chats were just a spark that hit the dry forest floor of discontent here exposing, critics say, how a government has really been functioning at its heart, trampling on Puerto Rico.

(Voice-over): Drawn out into the hills towards the towns hit by Hurricane Maria who feel America has almost let go of them and the decay worsens. The former education secretary is one of several officials arrested over wide fraud and theft claims that she's pled innocence to. And whatever happens to that money, this is where $25,000 of it a year would have kept Myra Burgos' school open.

[16:30:01] (On camera): So what do you feel when you come in here? "Shattered," she says, "to see something that was once so beautiful." Do you feel angry or do you feel shame that you couldn't fix this?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Nostalgia --

PATON WALSH: "Nostalgia, sadness, pain," she says. "The governor must resign from his position because he trusted some people who failed." Instead, her 200 pupils now get taught somewhere else, a lifelong lesson for them in how the political elites handle Puerto Rico's funding.

In church, she is one of many trained for better, beneath the change even in the priest's sermon. "We ask the Lord," he says, "to enlighten the spirit of everyone in government so they make the best decision for the people."

Back in the capital, noisy and imaginative protesters never stopped. These women, each with their own toilets, representing human rights, pensions, separation of church and state, the various virtues they think the governor has. Well, you get the general idea. A governor staying put just behind these police lines is distanced from his people, however, growing.

You know, you've got to hear this noise behind me. It is the consistent drumbeat demanding the governor's resignation. There's been a feeling of expectation in the crowd, in the town, over the last hours that maybe he's reconsidering his future. That's all unsubstantiated. Frankly, it doesn't tally with the public presence. He has given out. He was meeting with some of his key officials just hours earlier.

The crowd energized by somebody on a loudspeaker saying he may be in the governor's mansion. But you have to ask, Martin, what is his end game in staying in power? I haven't met anybody, granted I'm mostly in protest crowd, who thinks he should stay in power.

And so really, I think, it's all eyes on Monday's protest and whether the message of strength on the streets and hopefully calm is enough to make Governor Rosello reconsider his future. He though denies the allegations against him and says he had been elected and can get the confidence of the people back, Martin.

SAVIDGE: Nick, are there concerns that this could get out of hand, that what is peaceful could end up being violent?

PATON WALSH: I have to say, you know, when protesters get an idea that something near what they want might happen and then it doesn't happen, people get hurt, they get angry, and they get frustrated. There's no sign of that here and these have been mostly very peaceful, imaginative people coming on to the streets to be very noisy. But in the occasional (INAUDIBLE) here and there in a mosque, it looks like they may see at some point a yearning for more volatile situation.

That's not happened here. We saw it on Wednesday night, though. I don't think anybody wants to go back to that in a protest crowd because it gave Governor Rosello the ability to call the protests violent. So really yes, a large crowd tomorrow, lots of head space for it, lots of preliminary preparation being done. Hopefully that leads to calm.

But I got to tell you, we got a million people out here. Anything could really happen, particularly with this level of expectation we've been hearing in the past hour. Martin?

SAVIDGE: Nick Paton Walsh in San Juan, Puerto Rico, thank you very much for that update.

Next, he was once known as a worldwide notorious drug lord. Now he's in a prison cell. What is life like for El Chapo?

[16:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Notorious drug lord Joaquin Guzman better known as "El Chapo" was sentenced this week to life in prison plus 30 years for his role as head of infamous Sinaloa drug cartel. El Chapo spent years eluding police often through elaborately constructed tunnels. He even escaped from prison in Mexico twice.

But as Brian Todd explains, he is now in a 'supermax' prison in Colorado that is already housing some of America's most notorious.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): His track record of violence is horrifying. His skill at spectacular prison escapes legendary. But now, the convicted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzaman might have met his match. In an operation designed to keep the modern day criminal Houdini from escaping, El Chapo's lawyer confirms his client was flown by helicopter and then plane to America's only 'supermax' prison called ADX in Florence, Colorado.

El Chapo was sentenced to life plus 30 years on Wednesday after being convicted on 10 counts related to his drug trafficking operations. But now, former DEA agents and other analysts tell CNN they believe El Chapo's associates may have already cased the 'supermax' facility to plot a possible escape, something he's done time and time again.

MALCOLM BEITH, AUTHOR: You can find it on Google Earth now, so there's doubt that his cronies, his, you know, hardest men have looked into all possible scenarios. Would they be willing? Is he worth, you know, them launching a full-scale attack on the prison?

SCOTT (voice-over): The Florence's 'supermax' houses notorious terrorists like the Boston marathon bomber and the "Unabomber." No one has ever escaped. Former prison officials say El Chapo will be in a seven by 12 foot cell, at least 23 hours a day. But experts say this is an inmate who could likely test this airtight facility like no other.

At Mexico's maximum security, Altiplano Prison, in 2015, El Chapo disappeared while walking through a shower stall. There was an escape hatch in the floor that led to an elaborate tunnel complete with electricity, lighting, tracks laid along the ground, and a modified motorcycle cart for transportation. He once escaped another high security Mexican prison reportedly hidden in a laundry cart. And he once got out of a safe house into a tunnel and escaped completely naked while police were closing in on him.

MICHAEL VIGIL, FORMER DEA CHIEF OF INTERNATIONAL OPERATIONS: Chapo Guzman, I consider to be the modern day Houdini. He escaped from the two most maximum secure penitentiaries in Mexico. And the one in Altiplano was the most spectacular prison break that I have seen anywhere in the world.

SCOTT (voice-over): One former bureau prison official says unlike his previous attempts, it's not likely El Chapo or his men can get to the warden or guards at the 'supermax' in order to breach the facility.

JACK DONSON, FORMER BUREAU OF PRISONS TREATMENT SPECIALIST: It's going to be impossible to corrupt one person, two people.

[16:40:00] There's just too many checks and balances in the system. You know, control centers cracking doors.

SCOTT (voice-over): But could El Chapo's wife, Emma Coronel, a former beauty queen, help him escape? It's unclear if she would be given the chance to visit him there. At this trial, a former associate testified that Coronel helped him with the 2015 Altiplano escape, passing messages to and from him. She has not been charged with any crime, however.

BEITH: I think she will visit him and pass messages to family. He has sons who are running the cartel, and I think that's going to stay her role.

SCOTT: Experts say given the security at that prison, it's unlikely that Emma Coronel will be able to help facilitate an escape. Could El Chapo be targeted by other inmates at that facility? Analysts say it's unlikely that he will be allowed any contact with other inmates. But one expert says some of El Chapo's oldest and most feared enemies are also there, and he says he wouldn't rule out an attempt.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: Just into CNN, at least eight people have been injured when lightning strikes a Florida beach that was packed with people. We will have more on that in just a moment.

[16:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Just in, eight people were injured when a bolt of lightning struck a beach in Florida. The incident happened earlier this afternoon at Clearwater Beach along the Florida gulf coast. Witnesses tell police that the eight people either fell ill or fell or they were thrown when lightning struck the beach. That was around 1:30 p.m. Police say that four of the people were taken to hospital. One of them is in critical condition after going into cardiac arrest. Meteorologist Gene Norman joins us now. What was the weather like at that time? Was this a bolt out of the blue or was it clear the storm is moving in?

GENE NORMAN, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah, Martin, there were quite a few thunderstorms moving across the Florida peninsula during the afternoon. This is the loop for the last three hours. You see them kind of

progressing forward. But I want you to pay attention to this little area that we're going to hone in on. This is around 2:00 o'clock, so just shortly after when this was reported. This thunderstorm blew up very quickly near the clear water area.

Not necessarily a bolt out of the blue because these thunderstorms were developing. You don't see a whole lot else in the area. So if you're in Tampa or St. Pete, you may say, well, it wasn't -- it didn't look that bad until this one little cell developed. And there are more thunderstorms expected in the area in the next couple of hours. In fact, they're kind of bearing down on Tampa right now. So if you're in that area, watch out.

We always encourage people in the summertime to, you know, listen for that sound of thunder. When thunder roars, try to head indoors. You also notice there are no warnings in effect because in the summertime, the weather service is not going to chase every thunderstorm unless it really becomes a big, big problem. Just the fact there's lightening doesn't mean that it is a warned situation, Martin, but a cautious reminder that this time of year, especially in Florida, the lightning capital of the world, you got to watch out.

SAVIDGE: Absolutely. Gene Norman, thanks very much for the advice. Up next, we now know who will be in the next debate, but how will the 20 Democrats respond? It's a big platform that's seen its fair share of awkward moments in the past. We'll have more on that after this.

[16:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: CNN Heroes do extraordinary work to help others yet those people are rarely in the public eye. Last fall U.S. combat veteran Jason Kander was a rising star in the Democratic Party, running for mayor of Kansas City, when he dropped out of that race to seek help for PTSD.

Earlier this week, he spoke to CNN's Kate Bolduan about his journey and the help he got from a non-profit run by CNN hero Chris Stout.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JASON KANDER, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE OF MISSOURI: My first message to people is, if you think something might be wrong, something is wrong, and you should get help. I went to the VA and they gave me a lot of paperwork, and I looked at it and said, I'm not really sure I know how to navigate this process.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Even you.

KANDER: Yeah. And I'm, you know, in a decent spot to be able to --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

KANDER: -- figure that sort of thing out. So I went to an organization in my town in Kansas City called Veterans Community Project. They helped me navigate the process. They serve all vets, anybody who falls to the cracks. They have a village of tiny houses. They effectively eradicated veterans' homelessness in Kansas City. I'm excited to lead a national expansion in the organization. It's a new mission.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: If you want to find out more about the Veterans Community Project, go to CNNheroes.com, and while you're there, nominate someone you know to be a CNN hero.

Well, the stage is set for next week's 2020 Democratic debates. CNN is hosting two live nights of debates, Wednesday, July 30th, and Thursday, July 31st. It's live from Detroit, Michigan. Here's the lineup for night one, and then here's the lineup for night two. In all, 20 candidates will answer questions from our Jake Tapper, Dana Bash and Don Lemon.

But as Jeanne Moos shows us, sometimes as debates get crowded, they also get awkward and chaotic.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With this many candidates --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): The point and wave.

MOOS (voice-over): -- it's half debate, half cattle call. Remember how just getting the herd on stage after Ben Carson missed his cue caused a backup with the stagehand desperately waiting for Carson to go. They talk at the same time, occasionally invade each other's space and pretend to be friendly. With 10 candidates at a time, it can feel like an episode of Veep.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's turn our attention to foreign policy, Congressman Ryan.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bring it on, Brie (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your question is about Africa.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Pass.

MOOS (voice-over): A real candidate can't pass up the chance to look over --

CHRIS CHRISTIE, FORMER NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: Marc, the thing is this --

MOOS (voice-over): -- and land a body blow.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL): He doesn't know what he's doing. It's just not true.

CHRISTIE: There it is.

RUBIO: He knows exactly what --

CHRISTIE: There it is, the memorized 25-second speech.

MOOS (voice-over): I'm your opponent as you lower the boom.

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And that little girl was me.

MOOS (voice-over): Dominating the conversation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Property from an LGB (ph) woman.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me talk. Let me talk. Quiet. A lot of times --

MOOS (voice-over): Looking to score that viral moment even unwittingly. Beto O'Rourke broke into Spanish.

REP. BETO O'ROURKE (D-TX) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: (SPEAKING IN SPANISH).

MOOS: But in the end it doesn't really matter who is standing next to whom. Thanks to the split screen. With the camera watching your every facial twitch.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But he's a chaos candidate.

MOOS (voice-over): Making chaotic faces.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): He said he wouldn't want "such a hot head with his finger on the nuclear codes."

MOOS (voice-over): If you're one of the Democrats trying to break out of the pack, be careful what you wish for. You might end up alone on that stage where President Trump lurking behind you as Hillary Clinton described it.

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER FIRST LADY OF THE UNITED STATES: My skin crawled.

MOOS (voice-over): Even though he stayed in his assigned space, she said she felt like saying.

CLINTON: Back up you creep.

MOOS (voice-over): Now, that's enough to make you yearn for the days of the cattle call.

(MUSIC PLAYING) MOOS (voice-over): Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: That's why you don't want to miss two big nights of the Democratic presidential debates live from Detroit, July 30th and 31st, only on CNN.

[16:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Tonight, an all-new episode of the CNN original series "The Movies" and it all is about the films of the 2000s.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (voice-over): -- anyway. Now, she has a place in the state contest in --

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God, I won, I won, I won.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was the first script that I wrote where I started with the ending and then reversed engineered the rest of the story.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Miss Louisiana Erika Schwarz and the new Miss America.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One day, I'm sitting at home and I'm watching TV, and there's footage of this little child beauty pageant and there's all these little skinny blonde girls walking around. I just thought to myself, wouldn't it be great if an unconventional girl got up there and she like busted out and rock the house? I know that's a good ending. I know that that is going to be a good ending.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You could feel everybody in the theater was laughing at the same time. And to me, there's nothing else better than that.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And only movies can do that, to get everybody in one room laughing together.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like you're communing with the gods basically, the gods of laughter.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: I did like that one. Catch "The Movies" tonight at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN. Thank you so very much for joining me.

[17:00:00] I'm Martin Savidge. CNN's "NEWSROOM" with Ana Cabrera starts right now.