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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip

Outrage Grows As New Details About Fatal Shooting Emerge; Satellite Images Show Iran May Be Rebuilding Nuclear And Missile Sites; Trump Says, U.S. Told Iran The Ceasefire Is Over But Talks To Continue; Housing Bill To Become Law Without Trump's Signature. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired July 10, 2026 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN HOST (voice over): Tonight, one fatal shooting, two very different stories.

HUGO BALDERAS-IBARRA, ATTORNEY: I know that these agents, the agency is going to try to cover it up.

PHILLIP: And a call for an independent investigation.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I called for an independent and thorough investigation. I spoke to the district attorney.

PHILLIP: Plus, breaking news, new satellite imagery shows activity at Iranian nuclear and missile bases after the memorandum of understanding was in place.

Also, the president says it's the SAVE Act or nothing, refusing to sign the bipartisan housing bill that's set to become law tonight.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: It's a yawn. Just about everything is a big yawn.

PHILLIP: Live from the Food Network, Isaiah Martin, Joe Borelli, Caroline Sunshine, and Charles Blow for a special Summer Fridays edition of NewsNight.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP (on camera): Good evening, I'm Abby Phillip with a special edition of NewsNight. This summer, we're taking the show on some field trips, spending our Fridays here at the Food Network's Test Kitchen in New York. They're our sister company. And as always, we have a fabulous chef serving our friends of the show, and she has a special treat for us at the end of the night.

But, first, we get straight to the news. There are some new developments in a story that has been sparking outrage in Houston and really all across the United States. Tonight, we are learning that witnesses are now disputing key parts of the government's version of events that led to a deadly ICE shooting this week.

DHS had previously said that ICE officers opened fire in self-defense after 52-year-old Lorenzo Salgado Araujo rammed their vehicles with his van.

Now, the agency also said that he tried to run over an ICE officer. But there were three other men who were inside of the car, and they say that, through their attorney, that that account is a lie. In a written statements shared with the Washington Post, one witness said, it's impossible that officers were going to get run over because there were no officers in front of or behind the vehicle. They were on the sides. The witnesses also said that it was actually ICE who rammed their vehicles into the work van, and that Salgado Araujo did not use his vehicle to hit the law enforcement cars.

In another statement, a second witness said that, as the van slowed down, an officer ran toward them from the side and then started firing from the passenger side of the vehicle, hitting the victim in the abdomen.

Now, so far, ICE has not commented on these claims. The witnesses' attorney is accusing them of a cover-up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BALDERAS-IBARRA: After speaking with these men, I have no doubt that what they're saying is the truth. I know that these agents, the agency is going to try to cover it up. This is not the first time that it happens. This has become a pattern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: We're also learning tonight that officials have now begun the process of releasing the body to his family days after the incident. That's according to their attorney. Salgado's -- Araujo's son says it was ICE that took his father to the hospital where he was not identified despite having identification on him.

There also is new surveillance video of the moment that Salgado Araujo's white van came to a stop after ICE shot him. You can see there this black unmarked car trailing the van before it briefly disappears. When it comes back into the frame, it slows to a stop, but what happens in those final moments is unclear as of right now.

Now, before we open it up to the table here, we want to invite you at home to join this debate. You can go to cnn.com/abby. Weigh in there, and we'll get to some of your comments throughout the show.

This is, Charles, another moment that is capturing, I think, a lot of attention, and for good reason, because it highlights a number of things, perhaps a principle of which is how trustworthy is ICE as an agency both to tell the truth about what happened or to even investigate what happened in this incident?

CHARLES BLOW, THE LANGSTON HUGHES FELLOW, HARVARD UNIVERSITY: And one of the biggest kind of problems here is that there is no body cam on these officers even though we've been told for months that they were supposed to get body cam. Kristi Noem, when she was in charge of DHS, started the promise that they were going to start to supply all of the agents of ICE with body cam.

[22:05:00]

During the government shutdown, there were proposals flying all around including from now, who is -- Mullins, who is now DHS secretary. He had a bipartisan proposal to expand body cams. The White House sent a note to Collins and another senator saying that they were in favor of expanding body cams. On April 30th, the Congress, in a bipartisan manner, passed the bill that provided $20 million for body cams. Mullin got the job, but he didn't do the job.

And so now here we are again with an incident where someone is dead, and we have no body cam, and now we have to rely on competing witness accounts. That is a complete failure of this DHS, all of whom kept promising us that they were going to get these body cams on these ICE agents.

PHILLIP: I also wonder why they can't even tell us quite simply what happened. I mean, they've said that the vehicle rammed the ICE vehicle. They should be able to provide photographic evidence of that. They should be able to tell us what direction the officer shot into the vehicle, what happened in that lead up. Why all the silence around this?

JOE BORELLI, FORMER REPUBLICAN LEADER, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: I think it takes time to conduct a proper investigation. Police shootings unfortunately happen from time to time. More often than not, the shootings are justified. Occasionally, they're not, and that's why there does need to be. And I fully support what you're saying, there should be transparency, there should be accountability.

But to dissect a little bit what Charles said, he's right. It was the Trump administration, not the Biden administration, in February of 2025, that put a directive out that said all ICE officers should have body cams. And as Charles pointed out, it was thanks to constant Democratic shutdowns that delayed that process.

Now, you finally have in April -- and finally you have in April of 2026, the government actually funds $20 million.

BLOW: Are you suggesting --

BORELLI: Let me finish

PHILLIP: Well, no, the funding for body cameras, that $20 million came in the big, beautiful bill. That was last year. So, they had almost a full year to roll this out. They did not do it. I don't know why you would blame the government shutdown when ICE was operating as normal during the government shutdown. The Trump administration told us that. They have been operating. They were a fully funded agency. ICE was not impacted by the government shutdown. So, why would that stop them from providing body cams?

BORELLI: As I understand it, and as they say, this funding was tied to portions of the bill that were shut down by the government.

PHILLIP: No, that's not how government -- that's not how government funding works.

BORELLI: Charles just said that in April 2026, they had the money to do this.

PHILLIP: No, hold on.

BORELLI: No one believes that contracting for government services can be done in three months.

PHILLIP: The $20 million that was given by Congress to do this was given last year. That money was unaffected by the government shutdown, the government shutdown pertained to new money that they wanted allocated for ICE and for DHS. So, I don't -- you know, I get that's a political talking point, but it does not explain that part of it.

I also just want to -- let me play Tom Homan, because I think there's two parts of this that are interesting to me. One, I think it's the acknowledgement of what happened in Minnesota earlier this year, and then the second thing is that he's asking for grace from the American people to conduct this investigation, and I think that's what's in short supply. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM HOMAN, WHITE HOUSE BORDER CZAR: We're winning the public back because we're putting the truth out there. We're releasing videos. We're talking about these investigations. So, when this investigation comes out, we'll see where it lies.

When I went to Minnesota to fix that mess, first thing President Trump -- well, first thing President Trump sent me there, the first thing I did is bring more internal affairs officers in there and run down all the allegations. And, unfortunately, a couple of agents are in trouble now.

But we will do the right thing based on the findings of the investigation. We'll hold our people accountable. You got my word on that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: So, first of all, I'll give him credit for calling Minnesota a mess because I think that's really what it was for the administration. But Alex Pretti and Renee Good, there have been no disciplinary actions as a result of that, those two incidents. But what he's talking about is that there actually was an incident in which ICE, or law -- or immigration enforcement agents lied about an interaction that they had with an immigrant. And they were only really caught because the immigrant's family had some of it on video and they said that their account was not true.

ISAIAH MARTIN (D), FORMER U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE, TEXAS: Absolutely, and I think that's the root of the problem. The problem is that they just outright lied. Do we know anything today about the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good? No. It's been multiple months since that. And so, ultimately, I think that this is an alarming trend, that, yes, it is true, that ICE continues to do these things, because, ultimately, they don't really see any accountability because it's been months.

And so, ultimately, when we understand that immigration policy as a whole, only 5 percent of the people that ICE is deporting are violent convicted criminals. And what does that mean? It means that they're going after people like Lorenzo.

[22:10:01]

They're spending more time focusing on going after people like Lorenzo instead of actual gang members inside of our country.

What's ridiculous is the fact that Lorenzo woke up at 5:54 in the morning to go to work in America, and ultimately did not come home because ICE allegedly had the wrong guy. It's absurd.

And I think that what we need in this country is an understanding that this immigration policy's not working. We need to go for it, make sure we can do something different, and I think put an end to this endless funding.

CAROLINE SUNSHINE, FORMER PRESS AIDE, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: So, I understand how you have that perspective because ICE makes thousands of arrests every week. Just this past week in Virginia, ICE arrested an illegal immigrant who allegedly kidnapped and raped a woman.

We spent all week long on cable news talking about rape allegations all week long, so much so that a guy had to drop out of the Senate primary that he won because of rape allegations. But now we're not talking about the rape allegations against an illegal immigrant that ICE successfully detained, because we shouldn't want anybody who's allegedly committed rape to be in our communities, legal or not.

MARTIN: That's only 5 percent of what you guys are doing right now.

SUNSHINE: Now, in Minnesota, we have Tim Walz just pardoned an illegal immigrant who was convicted of raping a child. Tim Walz looked at that guy --

MARTIN: But this is really important.

SUNSHINE: -- and said, yes, I'm going to pardon him. He should stay in the U.S., and ICE said, nope, we're taking him out.

My point is --

MARTIN: But this is important.

(CROSSTALKS)

PHILLIP: What does it have to do with -- Caroline, what does that have to do with this man in Texas who everyone acknowledges doesn't have a criminal record?

SUNSHINE: We only focus on this ICE story. Why don't we focus on the others?

BLOW: This man is dead.

SUNSHINE: And then what happens is a lot of Americans walk away with a warped perception of the mission that ICE does.

MARTIN: A man is dead. American citizens have died. Only 5 percent of the people that you guys are deporting look like this.

SUNSHINE: Because people then do what this gentleman did, which was he did not comply --

(CROSSTALKS)

BLOW: Let me just say this.

SUNSHINE: He did not comply with the officer's orders and he rammed his vehicle. This creates --

BLOW: Well, you don't know that. You don't know. You have -- did you see that? You have no idea that that's true.

SUNSHINE: But we need to cover all of the work --

BLWO: All you know, you're taking DHS's word and she has no idea that that's true.

She also wants to throw in this the child who was raped. That is as far --

(CROSSTALKS)

BLOW: I will finish just like I let you finish. I will finish just like I let you finish.

Part of that pardon package, one thing that he didn't -- did you know the letters that were a part of that pardon package?

SUNSHINE: I know he pardoned a child rapist and I am not okay with that.

PHILLIP: So, you don't know.

SUNSHINE: And neither are American people.

BLOW: No, wait. I'm going to finish. You don't know because the victim herself, who is now 30-plus-years-old, petitioned to have that man pardoned. That is the letter that was --

SUNSHINE: So, you're okay with this then?

BLOW: What I'm okay with is telling the truth at this table and saying things that you don't know because you didn't research that. You just took the headline of that and tried to say something.

But I think what it is --

(CROSSTALKS)

BLOW: And you're trying to throw the rapist in to tone the fact that this man is dead.

(CROSSTALKS)

BLOW: And that the death of that man is as bothersome as much as throwing in these other examples.

PHILLIP: Caroline, there is actually a reason why people focus on the killings of people who didn't -- committed no crime by the government. It's because if you were gunned down outside, and it was an accident, they were looking for somebody someone else, and they killed you, you would want people to be outraged by that too. Because when the government uses force against you, that is a different thing than a criminal killing someone who can be held accountable.

So, I mean, I'm not -- it's not to discount any -- look, there are a lot of violent people in this country, and there is almost no opposition to deporting those violent people. But the -- we're asking a question about a man who had no criminal record, who wasn't even the target of this stop, and it seems, based on everything that's been reported, they got the whole thing wrong. It was the wrong van. Nobody in the van was being targeted. Nobody in the van was who they were looking for, and one person is dead.

So, just put aside the politics for a second. I mean, do you understand why that is so problematic for people?

SUNSHINE: Yes. Because this is what I'm saying though, is that there -- it's not equal outrage. And the reason the American people are so animated about the issue of immigration generally is because they feel like all of ICE's missteps get highlighted, but none of the good work.

MARTIN: Well, here's what is the reality though.

SUNSHINE: And we always know the names of people who've been killed by ICE but we never know the names of Americans who've been killed by illegal immigrants.

MARTIN: Because only 5 percent of the people you guys are deporting are violent convicted criminals, only 5 percent. It's 5 percent.

SUNSHINE: He was in the country unlawfully, and he did not comply with the orders of a law enforcement officer.

(CROSSTALKS)

SUNSHINE: Because there's a media environment where people are too fearful of ICE because of all the negative press they've received very unfairly. PHILLIP: I don't know if this is just about a media environment. I think it's also just based on the fact that, as you pointed out, there's been a massive surge of ICE interactions with people. And there's actually far less than your local police department, there's a lot less accountability, and that's really problematic.

One of the interesting --

[22:15:00]

BORELLI: Well, how do you know that fact?

PHILLIP: Well, because -- well, let me just give you -- let me -- hold on.

BORELLI: In this incident, you have --

PHILLIP: Let me -- hold on. Hold on, Joe.

BORELLI: -- a district attorney.

PHILLIP: You asked me a question, let me answer it. Let me give you some -- a reason why I would say there's less accountability.

ICE agents go around masked regularly. They don't carry body cameras. They don't even have cameras on their vehicles. None of these vehicles that were involved in this chase carry cameras. They have resisted even identifying themselves and their agency when they interact with people in these kinds of interactions.

Police departments, as you know, Joe, have very strict policies about traffic stops and about the use of force when it comes to using a weapon against a moving vehicle. And one of the things that we've seen repeatedly from ICE is that they have used weapons against the drivers of moving vehicles in a way that contradicts the best practices for law enforcement.

So, those are all the reasons I'm saying there's less accountability. There appears to be less training because a lot of these people are coming on the job in a hurried manner.

BORELLI: A couple things. ICE interacts, arrests, with about 60,000 people per month. Overwhelmingly, those don't result in any violence. They don't result in any shooting. They don't result in any death. When there is a shooting, when there is a death, whether it's justified or not, there ought to be an investigation. These --

MARTIN: Joe, can I ask you a question?

BORELLI: No, let me finish. These officers --

PHILLIP: Where's the investigation into the killings of Alex Pretti and Renee Good?

BORELLI: These officers are under the jurisdiction of the --

PHILLIP: Is there even a report about what happened to these two Americans?

BORELLI: -- Houston D.A., of the attorney general of the --

MARTIN: Joe, can you give us any example of anyone being held accountable by ICE?

BORELLI: -- the attorney general of the state of Texas, of the inspector general of ICE and HHS, right? So, there should be an investigation. There will be an investigation.

No Republican is out there saying we shouldn't investigate what happened. No Republican is out there saying --

PHILLIP: I mean, let me just play --

MARTIN: Can you give one situation --

PHILLIP: This is the mayor of --

BORELLI: And, by the way, I just checked -- you fact-checked me before. The $20 billion was from April of this year, so no one's procuring a contract for body cameras for all officers in three months. They got 60 percent or so of the field offices equipped with body cameras by this date today. That's pretty good in a few months. It's not great. Obviously, no one predicted that this incident would've happened, but it is the Trump administration putting body cameras on the bodies of ICE officers. It wasn't the Biden administration.

PHILLIP: Well, the Biden administration did deploy massive amounts of ICE agents. And, look --

BORELLI: There was no shootings under the Biden administration.

SUNSHIHNE: They did it because they were letting 10 million illegal immigrants enter the country.

(CROSSTALKS)

PHILLIP: Hold on. I didn't actually say that. I just said that the number of people that Trump has put on the streets requires more oversight, right?

BORELLI: But we had an election. We talked about immigration in the election.

PHILLIP: Don't you think?

BORELLI: We won the election.

PHILLIP: Let me play what the mayor of Houston has said.

MARTIN: And now you guys are unpopular on that very same position.

(CROSSTALKS)

MARTIN: Because you guys are killing people on the streets of America.

PHILLIP: Hold on a second --

MARTIN: That's why it was unpopular.

PHILLIP: -- Isaiah and Joe. Let me play what the mayor of Houston said about the status of the investigation. Local officials have said that they, from the moment this happened, have been trying to run their own investigation, and here's what they've been experiencing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JOHN WHITMIRE (D-HOUSTON, TX): The FBI has all the evidence that would normally go into an HPD or other law enforcement agency's investigation. They have the evidence, in this instance, the van, the passengers, the deceased, and they're tightly controlling it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Why, Caroline? Why are they tightly controlling it?

SUNSHINE: Well, that's his narrative. I mean, you also have to take into the account of the ICE officers. I mean, they have facts too, so like the facts are going to play out.

MARTIN: What account do you use?

BORELLI: It's the law. They're following the law.

SUNSHINE: Hey, we still live in a country where you are innocent until proven guilty.

MARTIN: Can you tell me the account you use?

SUNSHINE: So, there's a lot of facts that come out there.

(CROSSTALKS)

BORELLI: They're following the law. It's a shooting involving a federal law enforcement officer. The mayor did not say ICE and HHS are not following the law.

SUNSHINE: By the way, it was self-defense.

MARTIN: It's up to who?

SUNSHINE: Absolutely.

MARTIN: According to who?

SUNSHINE: You've never been an ICE officer. You've never -- like you've never served.

MARTIN: Have you been one?

SUNSHINE: No, but I understand it clearly. MARTIN: Have you even been to the border?

BLOW: Do you understand it?

SUNSHIHNE: Clearly, yes, I have.

MARTIN: Really? Where? What part?

SUNSHINE: Yes, McAllen, Texas.

MARTIN: I'm from Texas.

SUNSHINE: Have you been to the border?

MARTIN: Absolutely, multiple times.

SUNSHINE: Were you there when the 10 million were coming across and it was wide open under Joe Biden?

MARTIN: That didn't happen. You're a liar. But I do know is that you guys --

SUNSHINE: Really? 2021 to 2024, fact-check me, and here's the thing. It is a lot easier to import 10 million people into your country than it is to deport them.

MARTIN: You guys are lying. That's what I'm talking about.

SUNSHINE: It is a lot easier for 10 million people to come into your country than it is to deport them.

(CROSSTALKS)

MARTIN: No, what I am talking about --

PHILLIP: All right. Guys, why don't you --

SUNSHINE: And that is what these ICE officers have been tasked with, and they're doing a damn good job.

PHILLIP: And then you can respond if you'd like.

MARTIN: What I'm saying is that in every instance in which they want to talk about an issue of crime, 5 percent, that's the number of people that are convicted of violent crimes that ICE is actually deporting. That's reality. So, 95 percent of the people they're deporting are not people like that.

So, you can go and cheer-lead all these things as much as you want. The reality is you guys are not focusing on that.

(CROSSTALKS)

BORELLI: That's a great thing. I support it 100 percent.

PHILLIP: All right. BORELLI: It doesn't have to be just violent criminals who get deported. I think all criminals should get deported.

PHILLIP: All right.

[22:20:00]

We're going to leave it there.

Next for us, breaking news from Iran, there's new satellite imagery obtained exclusively by CNN that shows activity around nuclear and missile sites. Are they rebuilding?

Plus, the president refuses to sign the bipartisan housing bill, denying Republicans an easy win ahead of the midterm elections. Instead, he's blasting them for not focusing on his priority, the SAVE Act. We'll discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIP: Tonight, signs Iran could be rebuilding its nuclear facilities. New satellite imagery obtained by CNN exclusively appears to show activity at nuclear and missile sites throughout the country over the last few weeks.

[22:25:01]

Now, if that is the case, Iran is in violation of the memorandum of understanding with the U.S. that states there would be no procurement or development of nuclear weapons. On Wednesday, Trump was adamant that Iran was not close to rebuilding.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I was there for one reason, that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon. I call it we denuclearize Iran, and that's happened. They will never have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: This all comes as diplomats in the Middle East are scrambling to revive talks between the U.S. and Iran. Earlier, Trump posted that he's agreed to continue those talks, but he made clear to Iran that the ceasefire was over. And a senior U.S. official tells CNN that if Iran doesn't safely open the Strait of Hormuz, then the two sides will never move on to negotiations on a nuclear weapon, which might be fine with Iran. Because it seems that they've been, despite the MOU saying that they would maintain the nuclear status quo, they would not pursue nuclear weapons, they've been pretty busy around these sites, including at least one site that was never bombed in the first place. There were vehicles seen going in and out of tunnels at Pickaxe Mountain.

So, Joe, I mean, we've been asking this question for months now. How do we know that Iran's nuclear ambitions or capabilities have really been curtailed? And this reporting suggests that maybe they haven't been curtailed as much as the administration wants to say that they are.

BORELLI: Look, when someone tells you who you are, I'd say believe them. Right now, you have IRGC members actively saying that they will continue developing nuclear weapons. What we do know is that the satellite imagery doesn't show them doing any work at Isfahan, Natanz and Fordow, which are the enriching sites. So, we know that's probably not happening.

Still, this is a violation of the MOU, in addition to the strikes on the Qatari LNG tankers and a number of other vessels. I think the president is right to follow through on the promise he essentially made. If the MOU goes sideways, he's going to start bombing. I think we're going to see, in my estimation, more bombings over the next couple of weeks.

Now, CBS reported today that there is some indication that the Iranian negotiators, Ghalibaf and Araghchi, are saying that this is rogue elements within the IRGC. But it just underscores how loose the Iranians are, and how loose control they have over their country, and we can't even be sure who we're negotiating with.

So, unfortunately, I think the solution short-term is to continue the bombing run until we get compliance.

MARTIN: Well, you know, what I what I think is even more asinine is the fact that you call that the reality, but inside of the text of the MOU, they immediately unfroze Iranian assets. It's been reported that that number is $12 billion. So, before any of this, before there was any type of guarantee on nuclear, Trump went and made the negotiation in the agreement to give them $12 billion. So, the greatest heist in history seems to be the Iranians.

I mean, this is honestly worse than the Luka trade. Because at this point, what you guys did was, in this administration, you gave them $12 billion. Now, they're rebuilding their nuclear facilities. Now, we know that the regime is still in place. They still control the Strait of Hormuz. We have all of that happening right now.

BORELLI: We don't know they're rebuilding nuclear facilities. The satellite imagery shows they could be fortifying, they could be tunneling, they could be doing a number of things. We don't know that.

MARTIN: Oh, they're just playing Bob the Builder over there, right? They're not doing anything, right?

BORELLI: Seven vessels transitioned the Strait of Hormuz over the last 48 hours. Is that less than before the war? Obviously. Is that more than in previous weeks combined? Yes, it is.

So, the U.S. is establishing control. You have coming out of the NATO summit, you have --

(CROSSTALKS)

PHILLIP: Let me just make one point on that because I think this is really important, Joe. The Strait of Hormuz right now one of the reasons that we're back to hostilities is because Iran's been attacking ships in the Strait of Hormuz. But we also are learning, according to The Wall Street Journal, that in this time that we've been under this MOU, what Iran has been doing is prioritizing their ships.

MARTIN: Right.

PHILLIP: They're rushing their own ships through the Strait of Hormuz, rushing their oil, their agricultural products, their ore. And the other ships that are international commerce are going extremely slowly. It's a trickle.

BORELLI: That's why we're going through their mine --

PHILLIP: And one of the reasons that this is important is because we also immediately unsanctioned Iranian oil. So, they know, they knew time was of the essence. And they apparently have been taking advantage of it to maximize profit in this time period.

Again, it really begs the question, why was there so much trust placed in this document that didn't even begin to address the nuclear issue?

BLOW: Part of the reason it was the braggadocio of Donald Trump himself. The American people have this problem. We can't trust anything the Iranians say. We also can't trust anything that the president says.

MARTIN: Yes.

BLOW: He's all over the place. Either he's getting played completely. He has no idea what he's doing. He has no strategy. He's overselling on every point, so then now he has to backtrack on every point.

[22:29:59]

The problem is us. We don't have direction. We don't know what we're doing.

But at the very same time, gas prices are up by 30 percent. Americans are paying billions of dollars, more than just the direct cost of the war. Billions of dollars in inflationary pressure because of the war.

$61 billion have been spent by Americans just on gas and diesel alone, just the power of their cars and their vehicles. This is the crunch that we're in, and we can't trust the Iranians, and we can't trust the President of the United States of America.

PHILLIP: Some of this genie, Caroline, is not going to get put back in the bottle. Airline prices, for example. The airlines are basically saying, this is what the prices are now.

Jet fuel prices might come down, but the ticket you pay, it's going to be as high as it is now.

CAROLINE SUNSHINE, DEPUTY COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, TRUMP 2024 CAMPAIGN: Yes, so the fundamental miscalculation of this war was that the Strait of Hormuz was somehow going to remain open. I mean, the beginning of this war, the American people were sold the lie that the regime was really close to falling. We were just going to drop some bombs, and the people of Iran were going to rise up and take control of their destiny.

And as we saw with the funeral of the Ayatollah this past week, there were 12 million Iranians who showed up. That has not happened. And in regards to the rebuilding of the facilities, the White House told us a little over a year ago that Iran's nuclear program had been completely obliterated, and anybody that said otherwise was fake news.

BLOW: I love this topic, because this is the topic Caroline and I agree on all the time. I love it when we get on this topic, because we don't fight on this. Keep going.

SUNSHINE: But I would say that's true, because I think there's been a bipartisan rally around the flag effect against this war, not for it.

You have people who have lost the aisle saying, this is not benefiting America's national interest.

BLOW: That's right.

SUNSHINE: So there we go. I solved the world's problems on a Friday night.

ISAIAH MARTIN (D), FORMER U.S. CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE, TEXAS: We had a bipartisan shift. Let's get that. That's a win.

PHILLIP: I don't know. Joe, you're on your own.

Look, Joe, where does this go? Because I keep hearing from you and my other friends who are still supportive of the President on this war that we just keep bombing them.

But I'm not sure that's going to fly with the American public. So far, bombing them has only had negative impacts on Americans day to day, the cost of their everyday lives. And I'm not sure that Trump can really sell that to the American people.

JOE BORELLI, FORMER REPUBLICAN LEADER, NEW YORK CITY COUNCIL: The cost is real on Americans, but it's also real to say that the ability of Iran to protect itself from American missiles, bombs and aircraft is completely diminished. I mean, you saw the U.S. operating over the last 48 hours, unrestrained, able to bomb any site they want in Iran. That is certainly a different situation than we had previous to the war.

Now, what happens with the nuclear material?

PHILLIP: We've always been able to bomb Iran. But I have always said- That's always been --

BORELLI: No, no.

The conversation around this very table before the war started was how many American lives were going to be lost by Iran's defenses, how they have Russian radar systems, Chinese missiles. All this stuff was supposed to be --

Stop it. It's not happening.

BLOW: Even you would concede that the area that we're creeping into now with the bombing of bridges, civilian infrastructure is not where we want to go, because that punishes the Iranian people. One second. They punish the Iranian people, not the military.

You get very close to kind of the war crimes territory when you start going after civilian infrastructure. And that is what analysts say that the President is signaling now when he says that he's going to now start to bomb bridges and civilian infrastructure.

That is not what the American people want. We started this war saying we were trying to liberate the Iranian people. Now we're going to end up punishing them by making their lives harder?

BORELLI: The war crimes in this war have been perpetrated by the IRGC. There were proxies, Hamas, murdering of civilians.

PHILLIP: We're going to leave it there.

The President is blocking a victory lap for his own party to celebrate a bipartisan housing bill that they passed. Instead, he's furiously blasting them for not getting an election reform act passed. We'll debate that next.

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[22:35:00]

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PHILLIP: Tonight, Donald Trump gave Senate Republicans an ultimatum. And now he's making good on that promise, refusing to take an easy win.

This morning, Trump says that he would not sign a bipartisan housing bill that's set to become law at midnight in protest over Republicans' failure to pass the SAVE Act. Republican leaders had hoped to celebrate the bill as a historic achievement ahead of the midterms. They're even going so far as to plan a high-profile ceremony on Capitol Hill.

But instead of being able to do that, after months of negotiations on the most significant housing affordability legislation in a generation, the bill will become law with little fanfare. Trump has dismissed it as a yawn and so unimportant compared to the SAVE Act, which includes a voter I.D. and proof of citizenship measures. And another hobby horse of the President seeks to curtail mail-in voting.

So the President is looking a gift horse in the mouth, as he often does on this, and has decided not to take the win. And I think Republicans are frustrated because it's not even that this came out of nowhere. Some of the proposals in there he put on the table, and they passed it only because he wanted them to.

[22:40:08]

SUNSHINE: So he's frustrated with them over not passing the SAVE Act, which I am too. And usually I understand the method to the madness, but on this one not as much because he didn't veto it. He just said, I'm not going to sign it, which still means it does become law.

It just essentially means that, like you said, from a P.R. standpoint, we're not going to get that win. And what concerns me is there's a lot of overlap between Americans that are having difficulty affording homes, and Americans who are voting for democratic socialism. And if we want people to continue voting for democratic socialism, we should. --

No, no, I'm saying that --

PHILLIP: Hold on, let her finish. Let me -- let her finish.

SUNSHINE: Yes, I'm saying that right now the average age of the first time home buyer is 40 years old in our country. For the first time ever, one in three Americans under 30 is living with their parents. That's a national emergency.

MARTIN: And so this President didn't want to address that, because he wants to get a passport to vote.

PHILLIP: Hold on, Isaiah, let her finish her thought, because we need to understand where she's going here. You might actually end up agreeing with her.

SUNSHINE: You might end up agreeing. We have a national emergency in the sense that we have too many people who feel like they have ownership in our society. And they're looking to the people in power, which is the Trump administration, which is us, for solutions.

And if we don't deliver for them, and if we keep talking the way that Karoline Leavitt was talking this past week on television, that's how we're going to get more democratic socialism. When we're calling young Americans who feel like capitalism isn't working for them, and we're saying that they are lazy, that they have silver spoons in their mouth, that we should send them to Iran.

We should send them to Iran? Americans that are skeptical -- We should send them to a war zone?

PHILLIP: Hold on. Isaiah and Charles, I think the point that Caroline's making is a valid one. That when we have an economy that people don't think is working for them, they cannot afford housing, they can't afford a place to live, they are gravitating toward candidates who say, the number one thing I'm going to do for you is make your life more affordable.

Some of those candidates are democratic socialists. I don't think she's wrong about that.

BLOW: That's not the point that I'm making.

PHILLIP: That's the point she's making.

BLOW: I'm going to make another point then. But the point I'm going to make is that there are two crises.

One of them is not going to be solved very quickly, which is the housing crisis. The problem that they're going to encounter with this is that most of the things --

Just ask the Biden administration about big structural change. You don't get the credit.

It's going to happen slowly over many years. This won't be felt for months and years. So what you needed, above all else, was at least the victory lap of him supporting it at the White House.

They don't get it. But the second big problem, crisis that we're facing, is the reason that he's not signing it, because he is attacking this election. That is happening in real time.

People will feel that by the midterms. He's attacking the election on every single front, on every level, from the U.S. Postal Service to the Department of Justice, in every way that he believes that he can. He wants a sure thing in this SAVE Act to prevent people from voting rather than to win their votes.

And that is the crisis that is most pressing.

PHILLIP: 20 seconds here, and then we'll continue on the other side.

MARTIN: Because here's the root of the issue, is that Trump is not focused on everyday people.

And I think that's what it is. If he's more focused on this passport to vote bill than housing, I think that's the root of the issue. I don't think that it's really 5-D chess that we're talking about.

The issue is, is that we have a clear bill that was bipartisan, that would have stopped a lot of the corporate ownership of our homes, that would have stopped, that would have built more housing than really ever before. The President refuses to take a win on it, and I think that's ridiculous.

PHILLIP: All right, we'll continue this conversation after a quick break. We'll be right back.

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[22:45:00]

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PHILLIP: Welcome back.

As we were just discussing, Joe, the President seemed eager to sabotage his own party over elections and over, you know, voter fraud, frankly, a lot of conspiracies that he is after. That hurts when Republicans need something to run on this fall.

BORELLI: Yes, I mean, I don't entirely get the strategy here. I understand you want the SAVE Act passed, that's popular with our party, that's something that we want to do as an agenda item.

I don't understand how just allowing this bill to pass gives you the leverage to somehow do that. The substance of this bill is so good for President Trump. Americans are saying we have an affordability crisis, housing affordability is a problem for us.

You have a bill that increases supply side, you know, financing of housing, building of housing. You have new financing programs for people who are first-time homebuyers. All these things are a great bipartisan win.

Now, Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, they're going to go out there and they're going to take their victory lap on it. I think it would have been better if you had them come into the White House and unfortunately have to say something nice about President Trump. I think that would have been a bigger win for the President politically.

Thankfully, the bill's a win for the American public.

BLOW: Yes, but here's the problem. I don't think that this is about necessarily any individual representative, so he doesn't care about them.

He cares about protecting himself. He doesn't want Democrats to have the ability to subpoena and the ability to conduct investigations because of all the massive amount of grift that he's engaged in.

[22:50:06]

He doesn't want a fast tracking of the release of the rest of the millions of pages of Epstein files that we have yet to see, or the compelling of those to be shown, and so he is going to do this because he believes that he has no other leverage to protect himself.

His approval rating is now in the 30s. People are not happy with the direction of the country under him. They are not happy with this war of choice that he has engaged the American people in, so he cannot help by going out onto the campaign trail with it.

He doesn't even believe that this bill will help in the short term because even if you went out searching for a house tomorrow and this bill was passed, that this bill was signed into law or became law, you probably wouldn't even close before the midterms.

PHILLIP: Well, to your point earlier, I think the other part of it is that Trump thinks that policy isn't going to help Republicans. He thinks the only thing that's going to help Republicans is changing how elections operate in this country.

That's why he's been so focused on it. That's why, as we reported last night, they fired the Election Assistance Commission leadership. They've been threatening to withhold anti-terrorism funds for states over these changes.

I take it you agree with him on the election stuff, but is that really true, that the only way you can win is if you change how elections are run in this country?

SUNSHINE: No. How you win is by doubling and tripling down on the extremely popular agenda that won President Trump all seven swing states in 2024.

Now, what I worry about is I do -- hold on, let me finish. I do want the SAVE Act to be passed. Believe me, I have a few notes, Mr. President, if you're listening.

But with the SAVE Act, I want that passed too, and I think the Republican Congress has just been, I mean, these guys rode in on Trump's coattails and these guys have not delivered on his priorities.

PHILLIP: The problem with that though is that Trump has been President for a year and he's taken the country to war. He's increased tariffs on virtually everything. All of that is actually sharply unpopular, including actually his immigration enforcement agenda, which has also become incredibly unpopular.

SUNSHINE: Well, what was popular was, if you remember, we had signs at all of our rallies.

MARTIN: Can you tell me one thing that you guys delivered on?

SUNSHINE: Do you want to listen?

MARTIN: I'm interested.

SUNSHINE: So, at our rallies, we had these signs. If you remember, we said, Mass Deportations, right? And we've like really kind of taken me on that.

BLOW: I saw lower prices. I saw those signs.

SUNSHINE: To our point about our earlier discussion with ICE, the administration has really taken a knee on some of the promises that were most popular with the American public.

PHILLIP: We are going to have to leave it there, but we have to note they took a knee on mass deportations because it was actually very unpopular, Caroline.

Next for us, we'll read some of your feedback.

Plus, we're going to find out what Chef Amanda has been cooking up for us. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:55:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIP: We are back in the Food Network Lead Recipe Developer. Amanda Neal is here with us with some amazing plates for us. So, tell us what we're eating.

AMANDA NEAL, LEAD RECIPE DEVELOPER, FOOD NETWORK: So, today you're having a smashed and then grilled zucchini with a little bit of labneh and some za'atar. So, very refreshing for the summer.

PHILLIP: Like Mediterranean style.

NEAL: Yes.

PHILLIP: Summer squash, which I love. It's delicious. It's great and refreshing as well.

So, scan that Q.R. code on your screen for the smashed grilled zucchini with za'atar and labneh. Say that right.

And now, we'll get to your feedback from cnn.com/abby. Here's the first one.

This mess is going to be his Vietnam so much for being the no more war President.

Well, I think there's a lot of agreement over here. Joe's like, I'm eating.

BORELLI: I'm eating. Charles and I are almost done.

BLOW: This is some good food. I'm not going to lie to y'all. The war gets that plate.

PHILLIP: Another comment says, Isaiah and Caroline are correct. Okay. Should I just stop there?

Okay.

This administration must focus on the real needs of the American people. You have to reach the people where their needs are. Earn the vote of the people by meeting their needs.

SUNSHINE: Eating their needs.

MARTIN: Say it again.

PHILLIP: So, we did have some bipartisanship here at the table.

MARTIN: That's a win. I think that's what America needs.

SUNSHINE: I'm all for it, man. Always.

MARTIN: Let's go.

PHILLIP: And to Caroline's point, there are some Democrats that are doing that. They're calling themselves socialists.

That's how the system works. Some of them do that. Some of them don't, but it's all about who's going to address the needs of the American people.

And finally, not to leave. What? We have one more.

I think Joe's suit and tie is making the statement that he wants to be a model.

BORELLI: Well, I'm a fan. I'm not single, ladies. Mrs. Borelli is.

SUNSHINE: That's a good man.

PHILLIP: It is a good suit and tie. I like it when we get some positive comments from viewers.

All right. Well, Chef Amanda, thank you very much for this amazing dish.

Thank you for watching "NewsNight." Don't forget, tomorrow you can catch our Saturday morning show, "Table for Five," it's at 10 a.m. Eastern.

[23:00:04]

In the meantime, "Laura Coates Live" starts right now.