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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Fourth Day Of Search And Rescue For Survivors In Central Texas; Mayor Of Kerrville Says He Did Not Receive A Warning; Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) Is Interviewed About The Catastrophic Flooding In Central Texas; Trump Threatens Key Trading Partners In New Tariff Letters; Study: USAID Cuts Could Lead To Nearly 14M Deaths By 2030; Erin Patterson Found Guilty Of Three Counts Of Murder. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired July 07, 2025 - 17:00   ET

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

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT & HOST: Evan Perez, Elliot Williams, thanks guys. Appreciate it. My thanks also to my panel. Jake Tapper is standing by for "The Lead." Jake, have a great show.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right. Thanks, Phil. Appreciate it. Welcome to "The Lead." I'm Jake Tapper.

And we are going to start with breaking news in our "National Lead" and the urgent search for at least 24 missing people, almost half of them children, which is underway right now in parts of Texas after catastrophic flooding killed at least 95 people over the July 4th holiday weekend. The search effort entering day four as the region faces yet another flood threat.

A level three of four flooding rainfall is in effect for parts of Central Texas, including hard hit Kerr County. Kerr County, of course, home to Camp Mystic, the all-girls Christian summer camp that sits or sat along the Guadalupe River where floodwaters rose unusually rapidly, tragically rapidly before dawn on Friday morning. And a devastating update today, camp -- the camp confirmed that 27 campers and counselors died in the floods and 10 campers and one counselor remain unaccounted for.

This is one of them. Eight year old Hadley Hannah, one of the girls who tragically did not survive. This was her very first year at camp. A family statement to CNN describing her losses causing the family, quote, "unimaginable grief." The U.S. Coast Guard assisted with some of the rescues at Camp Mystic and elsewhere. One heroic officer helped rescue more than 160 campers. He spoke with CNN earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCOTT RUSKAN, U.S. COAST GUARD RESCUE SWIMMER: It was pretty traumatic. I mean, yeah, you have a lot of kids. They're having probably the worst day of their life. They're missing friends. They're missing loved ones. I was really just trying to comfort them and let them know, like, hey. Like, I don't know where your friends may be right now, but my only objective is to get you guys out of here and get you guys to safety. I'm sorry this happened to you guys, but you guys were so brave and tough, and it made me like a better rescuer because you guys were acting so bravely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: You're looking right now at video of a young woman clinging to a tree after being separated from her family during a camping trip along the Guadalupe River. She had been swept away by floodwaters and was in the water for about four hours before pulling herself onto that tree where rescuers thankfully found her.

So much bravery on display from rescuers and the Coast Guard, camp counselors, and young campers. It's imperative, of course, for the sake of the survivors and for the families who will never again get to hug those loved ones. We, as an American community, try to understand what, if anything, might have contributed in any way to these flooding deaths.

Some locals are asking questions about the warning systems in some of the areas affected, including Kerr County, which has seen the vast majority of fatalities, 75 fatalities. The county does not have an early warning system with emergency sirens, and the mayor of Kerrville today told CNN that he did not personally get an emergency alert on his phone.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE HERRING, JR., MAYOR, KERVILLE, TEXAS: Everyone here, if we could have warned them, we would have done so. And we didn't even have a warning.

We get alerts on floods fairly often because of the terrain here.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN CHIEF INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: And did you get an alert on your phone in those overnight hours?

HERRING: I did not.

BROWN: Does that concern you?

HERRING: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The mayor there talking to CNN's, Pamela Brown, who as a kid herself went to that camp. The warning -- coordination meteorologist, that's a top three leadership role. That position at the National Weather Service's San Antonio office has been vacant since April 30th when he accepted a Trump buyout offer to slim the size of government.

And currently, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer has asked the Department of Commerce's acting inspector general to investigate whether that or any other staff staffing vacancies in any way contributed to any of the issues in forecasting or to coordinating the warnings. The White House today said Senator Schumer and other Democrats are blaming President Trump calling it, quote, "a depraved lie." President Trump is making plans to visit Texas on Friday.

Authorities in Kendall County, Texas are currently holding a news conference about the flooding catastrophe. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO)

UNKNOWN: Thank you to our first responders for their selfless actions in rescue and recovery operations, risking their own safety to save lives. To Brady Constantine, our emergency management coordinator, for his leadership and rapid activation of our emergency operation center, ensuring timely coordination of resources. To our road and bridge crews, for working around the clock in dangerous conditions to restore safe passage, assess storm damage, and place protective barricades to protect our citizens.

[17:05:02]

To our county employees, many of whom spent their time over the holiday weekend to answer phone, draft emergency declarations, and assist behind the scenes. And lastly, to our community partners, state agencies, the game wardens, and our federal responders for their collaboration, their resources, and critical support during this emergency response.

This flood tested us, but it also reminded us of who we are. In the face of adversity, Kendall County came together. Neighbors helped neighbors, strangers became rescuers, and our sense of community shine through even the darkest storm. As the recovery process continues, Kendall County leadership is focused on long term support, rebuilding, and helping residents recover and heal.

We still have work ahead, but I have no doubt that we will move forward together stronger and more united than ever before. I would like to introduce Brady Constantine, our emergency management coordinator to talk about our response efforts. Brady?

BRADY CONSTANTINE, EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT COORDINATOR: Good afternoon, everyone. Brady Constantine, Kendall County, Office of Emergency Management. The emergency operations center was activated on July 4th at 06:37 a.m. Although there have been six recoveries, there are no confirmed missing Kendall County residents as of today. Identification is pending on the six individuals recovered.

Right now, our focus is on search, rescue, and recovery. Going forward, we will evaluate those needs and activities within Kendall County on a day to day basis. The emergency operations center will remain in operation as long as is needed, and we appreciate our partnership with state and local officials who continue to serve alongside our personnel.

Any new updates will be available by 4:00 p.m. daily on the Kendall County Office of Emergency Management Facebook page. And that's all I have for today. I'll now turn it over to Boerne Assistant Fire Chief Walter Ball to provide an update on water rescue operations since July 4th. Chief?

WALTER BALL, ASSISTANT FIRE CHIEF, BOERNE, TEXAS: Thank you. The Boerne Fire Department, in coordination with the Kendall County Office of Emergency Management, has helped in multiple aspects of the joint emergency operations center hosted here at the Boerne Police Department. In the early mornings of July 4th, two spec-op boat teams from the Boerne Fire Department were sent to the Comfort area and affected a total of eight rescues and multiple evacuations.

Additionally, in the subsequent days, the same boat crews assisted Boerne Electric, excuse me, Bandera Electric with restoring power by stretching lines across the flooded waters. Boerne Fire continues to support the Comfort area with a four person type one engine crew affecting search and rescue and daily operations for the Comfort Fire Department. Those seeking assistance in the Kendall County area may reach out to the Hill Country Family Services and their information may be found on the city and county Facebook pages. At this time this concludes today's press briefing. Thank you.

(END VIDEO)

TAPPER: Alright. Let's -- let's, break away from that press conference out of Kendall County and go to CNN's Boris Sanchez who's in Kerrville, Texas, a neighboring Kerr County. Boris, tell us what you're seeing on the ground and what you're hearing from residents there.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, Jake. It's very difficult to put into context just the scale of the devastation here. We're standing in a park in Kerrville. This is just downstream from Camp Mystic in Hunt, Texas. This is on the banks of the Guadalupe River, and I just want you to look around and see just the amount of devastation, the amount of detritus.

If you look up, you could see how high this blow of water went. More than 20 feet up. You see clothing strewn about, carpets, bed sheets, what it would appear to be children's toys, as well as clothing. These fragments of people's lives just tossed about. And these are massive cypress trees here, that just got tossed about. This wall of water coming, very rapidly.

In a matter of hours, you had months of rain coming down in this area, even sweeping people miles and miles downstream. And it's difficult to try to figure out where people might have gone if there are folks that are still, alive, if perhaps there are bodies candidly under piles and piles of debris.

Here you see a crew working right now to open up this bridge where the water just slammed, what I imagine are thousands, if not tens of thousands of pounds of just detritus and debris, over that bridge.

[17:10:04]

That's about 10 to 15 feet up. So you can imagine what it was like for people, waking up in the early morning hours of the 4th of July to raging floodwaters. I do also want to point out, as you asked what it's like here in the community. A lot of folks are trying to lend a helping hand. Almost too many. We heard from officials today who said that volunteers needed to heed warnings about potentially getting in the way of the work that officials are doing to try and rescue folks, try to recover folks. I quickly want to point up. I'm not sure if you're able to see it from

here, but there are folks up there, volunteers that were helping shovel out debris to get it out of the way to open up this area. It is going to be a long and difficult process to return Central Texas to what it once was. And part of that, Jake, is helping mend the broken hearts of folks who still have people missing out there. As you noted, at least two dozen still unaccounted for.

TAPPER: Alright, Boris Sanchez in Kerrville, Texas, the site of so much pain. Thank you so much. We're learning more about the National Weather Service warnings and how alerts went out. CNN's Isabel Rosales takes a closer look at that part of the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): Texas is grieving right now.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Grieving and bracing for more rain as urgent rescues are still underway for dozens who are missing after the devastating floods that ravaged Central Texas over the holiday weekend. Bursting the seams of the Guadalupe River and taking the lives of at least 95 people, including 27 campers and counselors from a summer camp in Kerr County.

CRUZ: There's still 10 girls and one counselor from Camp Mystic that are not accounted for. And the pain and agony of not knowing your child's whereabouts, it's the worst thing imaginable.

ROSALES (voice-over): Four months of rain fell in a matter of hours. The destructive and fast moving flood water beginning just before sunrise on the 4th of July. And many are asking why alerts weren't received and evacuations didn't take place.

DALTON RICE, KERRVILLE CITY MANAGER: Well, evacuation is a delicate balance because if you evacuate too late, you then risk putting buses, you know, or cars or vehicles or campers on roads into low water areas trying to get them out, which then can make it even more challenging because these flash flood floods happen very quickly. It's very tough to make those calls, but what we also don't want to do is cry wolf.

ROSALES (voice-over): But many families wishing they had taken that chance. The timeline as we know it now, the first flood watch was issued on Thursday in the afternoon and in the early evening at 06:30 central time. Then the first emergency alert came out at 01:14 the morning of the fourth, and then again at 04:03 in the morning, just an hour before the river burst at around 5:00 in the morning.

Then a second emergency alert was issued for Kerrville at 05:24 a.m. And then at 05:34, an emergency alert was issued for the Guadalupe River area. But phone alerts were reportedly not received by some people in an area known to have spotty cell service. Nineteen different local and state agencies are working urgently to find those still missing before the next day deluge (ph) of expected rainfall, including many who have come out to volunteer in search.

MICHAEL GUYER, VOLUNTEER: I figured I can at least come and help relieve them of some stress and exhaustion. Now I know that up towards Hunt and everything, they're still expecting possibly more storm surges, so we have to be on --

ROSALES (on camera): That's a big problem.

GUYER: Yeah. And we have to be on the lookout for that too.

ROSALES (voice-over): And why officials are asking volunteers to stay out of the way.

RICE: Because if we start getting weather reports and all, you know, and all the -- the other complications that are out there, we then have to pull off of those search and rescue missions to be able to communicate to those volunteers to get off to make sure that they don't become victims themselves.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROSALES: Jake, the way that one volunteer put it to me is you're searching for something you hope you don't find, but they recognize that this work is so important to give those families closure. And they're working from sunrise to sunset. You can see, the heavy machinery, and they're bringing all of this debris, those heavy cypress trees, getting it out of the way. And over here, you see that smoke stack? That's where they're burning it.

They're making their way up toward the Guadalupe River north, upriver, and all the tributaries and all the bodies of water that span out of it like a spider web. They want people to know that this is going to be a slow and grueling process. It's going to take time, Jake.

TAPPER: Isabel Rosales in Center Point, Texas. Thank you so much. The numbers are horrible enough, but every one of them obviously signifies a life cut short, a promise unfulfilled, the family, friends broken in mourning. And in this story, so many of these lives, so young, so tragically, awfully young.

Blair and Brooke Harber, 13 and 11 year old sisters, went missing during the flooding along with their grandparents. Their father confirmed his daughter's deaths, telling CNN that Blair was a gifted student who had a generous and kind heart.

[17:15:01]

He described Brooke as a light in any room. People gravitated to her and she made them laugh and enjoy the moment. Their aunt tells the Houston Chronicle that their bodies were found holding hands. Their grandparents have not yet been located.

We already mentioned in the show eight year old Hadley Hanna. This was her very first year at Camp Mystic. Her mother says she seemed to be loving camp. She too died in the flood. Her mother says Hadley was the most joyful, happy kid with a smile on her face. The mother of Camp Mystic camper, Janie Hunt, told CNN in a message Saturday morning that her daughter had passed away. Janie was nine, nine-years-old. Jane Ragsdale was the founder, co-owner, and, quote, "heart and soul,"

of a different all girl's camp. This is Heart O' The Hills in Hunt, Texas. A statement from the camp announcing her death in the flood says that Ragsdale, quoting again, quote, "influenced countless lives and was the definition of strong and powerful."

Most of the flooding victims were not at Camp Mystic. Dr. Katheryn Eads' daughter tells CNN her mother, quote, "lived a fulfilling life," cut far too short. She was an incredible wife, daughter, mother, grandmother, and person who spent her life helping kids.

Then there's the story of Julian Ryan. Julian was home with his fiance and family in Ingram, Texas when the flood engulfed their home. He punched out a window so the family could climb onto the roof. And in the process, he severed an artery in his arm. Emergency workers could not get to the home in time. He bled to death.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: He looked at me and the kids and my mother-in-law, and he's, sorry, I'm not going to make it. I love you all.

UNKNOWN: He's that a hero, and that will never go unnoticed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: May Julian Ryan's memory and the memories of all those who died in these horrible floods be a blessing. When we come back, we're going to talk to Congressman Chip Roy who represents some of the areas of Texas hardest hit by the floods. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:20:00]

TAPPER: And we're back with more of the breaking tragic news in our "National Lead." At least 95 people have been killed in these catastrophic Texas floods since Friday morning. Rescuers continuing to search for any signs of life. Dozens remain missing. With us now, Republican Congressman Chip Roy of Texas. His district includes parts of Austin, San Antonio, Kerr County, and Kerrville, areas hit the hardest by these devastating floods. Congressman, thanks for making the time. We're so sorry for the horrible losses your community is experiencing. What is your understanding as to how many people are still unaccounted for? And is this still a search and rescue mission or has it transitioned to search and recovery at this point?

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): Yeah. Well, Jake, thanks for having me on, and thanks for, you know, putting on the television, the stories of some of these folks, like Jane Ragsdale, who you highlighted, and others that did so much to risk their lives, to save other people's lives. You know, I don't have the latest number on terms of what exactly is the people who are still, unaccounted for.

I think it's about 40 or so that they are looking for, people that they think they should be able to go find. But I think there's going to be more. I think the numbers are going to grow. I think, you know, right now, we're somewhere around 80, obviously, fatalities with 10, of the little girls from that camp that have still not been fully identified, you know, night before last.

Probably did the hardest thing I've ever done as a member of congress, which is join the sheriff and the local city manager to meet with the parents of those that -- of the little girls that had not been found and that were missing. We were, at that point, still engaged in a rescue operation.

The governor maintains a rescue posture as long as it's feasible. Obviously, now we're 72 hours in almost, and we're at a place where that's obviously time moves on. We're doing a lot of recovery. But, you know, I just want -- I can't say enough about the great work of the first responders, the people in the stories you've highlighted.

A story like Dick Eastland, who was the guy who bought Camp Mystic in 1973. He's been there for forever and he's like a grandfather to these kids. He takes them, teach them fly fishing. He's kind of their, you know, grandfatherly figure there. And, you know, he unfortunately lost his life too trying to save some of those little girls late night.

And it's hard for the viewers to understand flash floods in Texas, and there's a lot of finger pointing going on in both directions politically. I'm not going to let this be politicized right now. We'll figure this out going forward. But flash floods in Texas on limestone with a little bit of soil, when we get rain, the water goes real quick.

I posted a video at Llano, which is out of my district but similar terrain, and that water rose up and filled the entire river basin and moved up 20 feet or so in a matter of, like, five minutes. This is what happened in in this area, but it was even greater and more enhanced because of the amount of rainfall that fell in that particular area on the Guadalupe, just up above Hunt.

And so it was an extraordinary event. People say, well, it's -- you know, happened before, like, 1987. Well, I know we got to go and compare how fast this water came up. It came up very quickly. There's a place down on the river in Kerrville, which is down about 20 miles down from where the camps are, and that's where I normally go on 4th of July for concerts. Robert Earl Keen was supposed to play Friday night, a guy named William Beckmann, some great Texas artist.

We go every year with my kids. My kids are 15 and 14. A lot of their schoolmates were at Camp Mystic. A lot of their schoolmates were at these camps. And that water down in Kerrville rose almost 30 feet in about an hour and a half, and this all happened between 4:00 in the morning and 6:00 in the morning. Yes, we could probably have better alarms -- alert system, but we got to, right now, focus on the families, the loved ones, and understand that this was a catastrophic event, not unlike a F5 tornado or some other big kind of event.

[17:25:04]

TAPPER: Tell us how the community is responding to this horrible tragedy.

ROY: Well, I mean, I can't even put into words the outpouring of support, the prayer from all across the country. My colleagues, both sides of the aisle, Lizzie Fletcher, a Democrat from Houston who went to one of the camps up there. I'll let her speak to the specifics, but it was calling me and, you know, she's looking out for her constituents. Everybody in the state was touched by this, people across the country. The amount of people who have showed up to volunteer.

I walked into the operation facility late Friday night on the 4th of July. And this -- I was sitting there waiting, we're talking to some folks and going through stuff. About 1:00 in the morning, this kid comes rolling in from Lubbock, and he operates commercial drones. He just driven down. He's like, look, I want to be here to help. Just hundreds of those examples.

They had so many that that they had to turn people away today, and I hope people will go to my website on it. It's a nonpartisan issue, Jake. Go to roy.house.gov or chiproytx. C-H-I-P-R-O-Y-T-X on Twitter/X to see what I posted on my Facebook page where people can help, where they can contribute and give.

We're asking people not to show up to Kerr right now. The roads are shut down along the river except for, you know, official vehicles. And, you know, we need to control kind of how it's being doled out, but all the support that we're going to get is great. And there's already benefit concerts getting planned. I won't break the news and the details now, but a lot of great Texas artists from that part of the country will be doing a lot over the next two months in trying to raise money.

TAPPER: I do want to ask about, your friend and colleague, Congressman Pfluger.

ROY: Yeah.

TAPPER: He had two daughters at the camp. I know that they're okay, but how is Congressman Pfluger and how are his wife and daughters doing?

ROY: Well, you know, they're doing fine. They're obviously traumatized, his two beautiful little girls. August is a great friend. He represents Midland. But he's been going to that and his kids go to that camp, and he knows the owners there. He'd known them for years. And, you know, he was traveling with his wife, and his girls were there when all this was breaking, you know, and all of us were trying to react as we understood how bad it was.

And, again, it was such a surprising amount of water. Like, I'd actually been tracking it, Jake, because I was debating going home for 4th of July like I planned to do versus being in D.C. because remember, the bills, you know, vote and everything had gone late right up to the last minute. So I was tracking the weather, and we knew it was going to rain a lot. But, you know, we had warnings, but you just didn't know how much it

was going to dump right at that particular moment. And so, August has been back. I think he went to flew -- went to Kerrville today and went to Camp Mystic to go retrieve some of their belongings. But, you know, Buddy Carter, a congressman from Georgia, his, I think, grandniece, unfortunately lost her life.

I've had so many of my friends. I had a law school classmate who came. I visited him there in Kerrville. He's picking his daughter up who made it. I had another law school acquaintance who graduated a few years after me. His two daughters didn't make it. I think you guys maybe even reported on it on the screen.

A good friend of mine that worked with me in Senator Cruz's office, her daughter made it. They went to go pick her up, but her daughter's best friend that they, you know, spend all their time with, she didn't make it. You know, there's great stories and there's sad stories, and we're going to be dealing with this for a long time.

TAPPER: Yeah. And as you mentioned, there will be time later on. It's a little raw now, but later on to talk about ways to get ahead of making sure this doesn't happen, again.

ROY: Yeah.

TAPPER: And we'll have you back to talk about that when the -- when the moment is right.

ROY: Happy to do that.

TAPPER: Yeah. Republican Congressman --

ROY: Happy to do that.

TAPPER: -- Chip Roy of Texas, thank you so much. God bless your constituents.

ROY: Thank you, Jake, and God bless you.

TAPPER: Much more to come on the floods and the fallout in Texas, but there's also breaking news today from the White House. President Trump has announced some new tariffs on several countries and a new date for those to take effect. All of that has rattled the stock markets and your investments. We'll take a look. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

TAPPER: In our Money Lead, the U.S. stock market just had its worst day in three weeks after President Trump announced a 25 percent tariff on Japan and South Korea, set to go into effect August 1st. This comes as a self-imposed deadline for a deal was set to elapse this week.

Today's announcement was soon followed by a flurry of letters warning of possible high -- higher tariff rates to other countries, such as Myanmar and Malaysia and Kazakhstan and Laos and South Africa, posted on the President's social media account. Let's bring in the political panel to discuss. Scott, today White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked if there's any concern that world leaders will not take these new tariff threats seriously because deadlines keep shifting.

I mean, there was this 90 deals in 90 days thing that is no longer fully operative, not -- not the 90 days part of it anyway. Here's what Leavitt had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: They will take the letters seriously because they have taken the President seriously and that's why the President's phone, I can tell you, rings off the hook from world leaders all the time who are begging him to come to a deal. And this administration is working hard to ensure those deals are in the best interest of the American people. And this delay, again, is in the best interest of the American people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I mean, he's the one that said 90 deals in 90 days. It wasn't us in the media. Your take?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, they have to take us seriously because for all these countries we're the most important thing they have going and so they have to take it seriously. And I assume the President here is trying to goose conversations along and I hope that he does. Some of these countries are basically irrelevant, you know, Kazakhstan, whatever. Some of them are more relevant. But, you know, look --

TAPPER: You're going to -- you're going to hear from the Kazakhstan.

JENNINGS: I know. I know. I know.

TAPPER: Keep going.

JENNINGS: Very nice. But I -- look, the President has a theory on the tariffs here. He has brought in money into the country. He did create leverage for some other trade deals. And if you look at the totality of what's happened over the last several weeks and several months, the market's up. We've got a lot of investment flowing into the country.

[17:35:00]

Back in my home state of Kentucky, in fact, G.E. announced they were bringing a bunch of jobs back because of the policy environment created by the tariffs. So, you know, there's good things going on economically in the country, which is a big part of why I think the President's had a fairly successful six months.

TAPPER: So, Megan, you know, we talk to a small business owner every day. We try to. And the one thing we hear all the time is just that this instability and insecurity, the unsuredness is just wreaking havoc on the ability of small business owners just to plan. MEGHAN HAYS, FORMER SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO PRESIDENT BIDEN: Yes, I think we saw that people bought goods in -- in anticipation of the tariffs and now those goods are eventually going to run out. So, prices will start to rise. I think the Wall Street has, you know, dubbed him taco, where he always, Trump always chickens out.

So, I think that that's just more emblematic of this and it creates chaos. I don't disagree that it does move some talks along, but I do think that it's interesting that we can't seem to get deals done with the bigger countries and the bigger -- our bigger trading partners. And it is, he seems to keep -- keep kicking the can down the road.

TAPPER: So, and these tariffs are just one of the reasons why there has been this public divorce between Elon Musk, the former first buddy, and President Trump. Shortly after President Trump signed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act into law, Musk said he's trading in his MAGA cap. He's going to create a whole new political party.

He posted on his social media platform, X, quote, when it comes to bankrupting our country with waste and graft, we live in a one-party system, not a democracy. Today, the America Party is formed to give you back your freedom. President Trump responded yesterday saying, I am saddened to watch Elon Musk go completely off the rails, essentially becoming a train wreck over the past five weeks.

Scott, yesterday you said, you thought that the America Party, assuming that it actually becomes something, would divide conservatives and you urged the two to reconcile. You think that's possible? I mean, Musk's still out there tweeting about the Epstein files and such, the insinuation being that Trump is on the Epstein files because he -- he said that a few weeks ago.

JENNINGS: Yes, I don't -- I don't know whether it's possible or not. I hope it is, and hope springs eternal where I come from. But I -- I wish they would come back together, and I wish Elon, who I admire greatly and I think was a big part of what happened for the Republicans in 2024, would realize we live in a two-party system. And, you know, from time to time people try to go off and start these third parties. It never really works out.

And the best way to affect change in American politics is to participate inside the party that best reflects what you want. As I understand it, Elon wants to save the country from going bankrupt, and he wants to save Western civilization, you know, from unfettered mass migration.

TAPPER: But this is -- this is --

JENNINGS: It's the Republicans that best represent him.

TAPPER: This is the platform. Musk reposted this from a user who asked, is this the America -- is this the America Party platform, and then listed the following priorities. And Musk replied, yes, so I assume this is the platform. Reduce debt, responsible spending only, modernize military with A.I. and robotics, pro-tech, accelerate to win in A.I., less regulation across the board but especially in energy, free speech, pro-natalist, which is policy that would promote higher birth rates, and centrist policies everywhere else. It's a lot of yada, yada, yada.

JENNINGS: He's a Republican.

HAYS: Yes.

JENNINGS: He's a Republican. He's a Republican.

TAPPER: It sounds like a tech bro is what it sounds like.

HAYS: Yes, he needs to focus on his business. I mean, his stock dropped 6.8 percent today when he announced this, or in the last couple days when he announced this party. I think that I agree with Scott that we are a two-party system. Ask people who voted for Jill Stein and ask people who voted for Ross Perot. Those did not work out in the favors that they wanted them to. And so I do think that he should probably focus on business and not be meddling in politics. Governing is a lot harder than campaigning.

TAPPER: Meghan Hays and Scott Jennings, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it.

[17:38:35]

The Trump Justice Department back in court today defending cuts to USAID. This is we're getting a firsthand account of the devastating impact of those cuts in one specific war-torn country. Stay with us.

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TAPPER: In our World Lead, the U.S. Justice Department argued in federal court earlier today that the Trump administration's decision to not spend money appropriated by Congress to USAID contractors is not a sign of a constitutional crisis. The U.S. Agency for International Development officially shuttered last week after Elon Musk's DOGE stripped its funding. A new study reveals nearly 14 million deaths worldwide could come over the next five years as a result of the agency's closing.

The Washington Post's Katharine Houreld joins me now to discuss the country that could be extremely impacted, Sudan.

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TAPPER: Katharine, thanks so much for joining us. As you dive into your reporting, Sudan, home to the largest humanitarian crisis in the world, according to the United Nations right now, because they're embroiled in civil war. Tell us what life has been like there for the past few years and what USAID has been doing until the recent actions by the Trump administration.

KATHARINE HOURELD, EAST AND SOUTHERN AFRICA BUREAU CHIEF, THE WASHINGTON POST: Well, the civil war has completely devastated the country. Fighting broke out in the capital city and towns and cities across the nation almost simultaneously. The health care system has been destroyed. They're spreading pockets of famine. You have cholera outbreaks and other communicable diseases everywhere.

And USAID has been providing food and medicine, support for shelter, kits for rape victims to stop them from getting pregnant and getting HIV, support for refugees that were caught up in the fighting. And all of that is in danger.

TAPPER: You write about a mother and her seven children who relied on a single meal from a soup kitchen that received funding from USAID, quote, when the stop work order came in January, Fadul said, almost all the soup kitchens in her neighborhood shut down overnight. So her children starved, unquote. And in fact, her 18-month-old daughter and her three-year-old son both died of starvation and malnutrition.

[17:45:02]

To families who experience these deaths that are obviously preventable, do they see the United States as the cause of their deaths? What do they say about the sudden shift in access to -- to nutrition?

HOURELD: They don't always understand that the funding has been coming from the United States. They just knew that the only thing that was keeping their children alive was if it disappeared with no warning. These soup kitchens were right on the front lines across the country, and USAID provided 77 percent of their funding.

And for a lot of the people that used them, that was the only way that they could get food. And the worst thing was, talking to this woman who lost two of her children, was that there was nowhere that she could go and get food. Ten children in her neighborhood she knew of died. She said, I couldn't ask the neighbors for anything because they didn't have anything.

TAPPER: Sudan, as you noted, is also experiencing a severe cholera outbreak. What are physicians and health officials there saying about the outlook when it comes to the health of the country, now that the U.S. has stopped sending medical aid to -- to the region?

HOURELD: So unfortunately, the vast majority of Sudan's health care systems have been destroyed. Hospitals have been attacked and bombed. Doctors kidnapped, tortured and killed. USAID was funding things like disease surveillance teams, so they could quickly act if cases of cholera were reported.

Those, unfortunately, have been cut. Help for things like chlorinating water, so that people wouldn't come down with this deadly disease, has been cut. The cholera wards were overflowing with, you know, sick people and bodily fluids, people on the floor, several people to a bed, people hooked up to IVs outside, kind of pretty, very disturbing scenes there.

TAPPER: Is there any other country that's able to step up to fill this desperate need for aid that has been left by the demolition of USAID?

HOURELD: Unfortunately not. Russia doesn't really do humanitarian aid. China does commercial loans. USAID was not the largest donor per capita, but in terms of dollar amounts, it certainly was. And the swiftness with which everything was suddenly cut off meant it was really hard for anybody else to -- to fill the gap, even if they'd been inclined to do so, which, unfortunately, a lot of nations have followed the U.S. lead and cut their foreign aid budgets.

TAPPER: Katharine Houreld, thank you so much for your time and for your journalism. Really appreciate it.

HOURELD: Thank you.

TAPPER: Coming up, she was accused of serving a poisoned lunch. And now a jury has served its verdict in the mushroom murder trial. The details next.

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TAPPER: In our World Lead, we head to Australia for a verdict in the mushroom murder trial. A jury has found Erin Patterson guilty of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. After hearing nine weeks' worth of testimony, Patterson was accused of deliberately killing three of her relatives with a meal made of, in part, a poisonous death cap mushroom baked into a beef wellington, which you can see being photographed in this newly released court evidence. CNN's Ivan Watson brings us this story.

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IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Australian mother of two, Erin Patterson, killed her estranged husband's parents and his aunt and hospitalized his uncle, all with a meal of beef wellington containing toxic death cap mushrooms. And now, after a 10-week trial that captivated Australia and the world, a jury has decided she poisoned them on purpose.

In July 2023, Patterson hosted four people for lunch at her home in the Australian town of Leongatha. Don and Gail Patterson, her former in-laws, died in the days after. Gail's sister, Heather Wilkinson, also died. Heather's husband, Ian Wilkinson, spent weeks in a hospital fighting the poison and survived.

Patterson's estranged husband, Simon, had turned down the invitation. Erin Patterson took herself to the hospital after the meal, but was never as sick as the others. In court, she said, it was because she didn't eat much of the lunch and threw up afterwards because she binged on dessert. Lunch that day was individually portioned beef wellingtons, steak and mushroom pate wrapped in pastry.

Patterson says she flavored the food with dried mushrooms, which she thought had come from a grocer, but might have collected and dehydrated herself as part of her hobby of picking wild mushrooms. The dehydrator machine was later found in a dumpster with Patterson's fingerprints and traces of the death caps inside.

Patterson admitted she had disposed of it in a panic and lied to police about ever owning it. The court heard evidence that in the months before the meal, Patterson may have been in a location where death caps grow. The defense argued the poisoned meal was a terrible accident and that Patterson had no motive to kill the victims on purpose.

Ultimately, prosecutors were able to convince the jury with their argument that Patterson purposely hunted for death caps and then cooked them with the intention to kill her children's only grandparents and her ex-husband's aunt and uncle.

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WATSON (on camera): Jake, in court, the prosecutor accused Erin Patterson of fabricating a pretext for inviting her in-laws to the deadly lunch, basically lying that she had a cancer diagnosis. And the prosecutor also accused her of trying to cover up the poisoning and, in fact, pretending that she, too, had been poisoned. We don't know what swung the jury, but in the end, it was a unanimous decision by all 12 jurors after six days of deliberations. And now Patterson has 28 days to appeal the guilty verdict. Jake?

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TAPPER: All right, Ivan Watson, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Questions in Texas over whether warnings were communicated effectively as the death toll from the flash floods there continues to rise. We're going to talk with a former administrator of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, next.

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TAPPER: Welcome to The Lead. I'm Jake Tapper.

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This hour, Texas is bracing for even more rain as rescuers are still desperately searching for survivors after those catastrophic flashfloods in Central Texas that began Friday morning and that have killed at least 90 people, including 27 children at a summer camp.