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CNN NewsNight with Abby Phillip

Trump Attends Dignified Transfer for Four U.S. Soldiers Killed in War; Despite Unfavorable Polls, Trump Claims Americans Support Iran War; 2020 Election Deniers Win Key GOP Primaries in Arizona. CNN Investigates the Brutal Killings in Minnesota by ICE Agents; New York City Mayor Reverses Campaign Pledge on Arresting Israel's Netanyahu. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired July 22, 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 ANCHOR (voice over): Tonight, a moment of truth for the war in Iran.

DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Americans don't want high gasoline prices, but they're not against the war.

PHILLIP: But a key senator is warning his party about its impact ahead of the midterms.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R-KY): We're measurably worse off than we were before the war.

PHILLIP: Plus, Trump-backed candidates win big in Arizona --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's make this the year that we turn Arizona red again.

PHILLIP: -- as election deniers are now on the ballot for November.

Also, 18 days in Minnesota, an exclusive CNN investigation uncovers false claims, cover-ups, and chaos behind the Trump administration's killing of two American citizens.

And New York City's mayor backs down from his threat to arrest the Israeli prime minister.

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D-NEW YORK CITY, NY): Benjamin Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City.

PHILLIP: Live at the table, Tara Setmayer, Noah Rothman, T.W. Arrighi, Dina Doll, and Geraldo Rivera.

Americans with different perspectives aren't talking to each other, but here, they do.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PHILLIP (on camera): Good evening. I'm Abby Phillip in New York.

Tonight, the human toll of the war in Iran was realized as four American soldiers killed this weekend returned home. President Trump was at Dover Air Force Base for the dignified transfer, and we've learned their names, First Lieutenant Tyler James Feehan, Sergeant Angel Rampersad, Private Isabella Gonzales, and Sergeant Michael Emmanuel Swinton.

18 American service members have been killed since the start of strikes in February, and the president spoke to reporters just before traveling to that dignified transfer. He appeared to speak for the fallen members.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Great heroes, actually. They said, and they -- all of them said very strongly, we can't let -- we cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. They won't have a nuclear weapon. So, we're going to honor them.

REPORTER: What do you say to families of these fallen soldiers when Americans are broadly against this war? How do you ask them?

TRUMP: Well, Americans aren't against the war. The -- a poll just came out. Americans don't want high gasoline prices, but they're not against the war. That just came out loud and clear in a poll. Nobody wants Iran to have a nuclear weapon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: It's unclear what poll he's referring to there, because poll after poll for the last three months has shown that Trump's numbers, when it comes to the war in Iran, are significantly underwater, with roughly a third of voters saying that they approve of the president's handling of the situation in Iran.

Senator Rand Paul didn't shy away from criticizing the war effort, and he warned the party of backlash that they could get in the midterms.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: I think the Iran war has not been a success. I've been opposed to the Iran war from the beginning. I think by any objective measure, we're worse off in the war before the war.

MANU RAJU, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: How do you think voters would react if the GOP Congress approved $70 billion or so for Iran before the midterms?

PAUL: I think people are mostly upset about how much things cost, you know, so when they go see gas prices. But it's also really just the all across the board.

RAJU: Will there be backlash in November? PAUL: Probably.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Before we open it up to the table here, we invite you at home to join the debate. Go to cnn.com/abby and weigh in. We'll get to some of your comments throughout the show.

But, Noah, what do you think is the answer to that question that Manu asked him? Will there be backlash? And also, how are voters supposed to react to an ask for $70 billion for a war that kind of came out of nowhere? Congress wasn't asked about it. Voters weren't explained about it beforehand, at the same time that their costs are rising at home.

NOAH ROTHMAN, SENIOR WRITER, NATIONAL REVIEW: Yes, so I can't imagine how many times we've said it around this table, that the president should have approached the Congress with a war authorization vote. He should have explained to the American people, and should do so right now, what is expected of them, the burdens that they're expected to bear, and why the Islamic Republic is such a threat, and why neutralizing it will yield incredible advantages for the United States, as well as pocketbook advantages for them.

[22:05:12]

I don't find Senator Paul's comments especially revelatory. He's been ideologically opposed to the projection of American power since he's been in office. But I don't begrudge him or any Americans hostility to this conflict because if you only follow it through American media, you would think America is just losing, and Iran is just running the field on us.

If you listen to Iranian media, foreign media, which covers Iranian comments, you have Ghalibaf, who is now articulating out loud the paradox of the strait, which is the longer we keep it closed, the less valuable it is. We actually need to increase traffic through the strait, for which he was accused of executing a coup by hardliners in the regime.

You have Pezeshkian saying the economy is the main battlefield now, and you have the regime closing cafes, again, for the first time since December, before they slaughtered 40,000 people in the streets. They're experiencing a lot of hard times, too, in Iran. It's just a matter of who has the staying power to stick it out.

TARA SETMAYER, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, THE SENECA PROJECT: Yes. But the difference is that they don't answer to their people. They don't have elections there that are any meaningful in any way, so unlike here in the U.S. And what's happening in the strait, Donald Trump has told us 40 times plus now at this point that it's over, you know, we're going to -- the strait's going to be open, they're begging for a deal, this is going to only be four to six weeks long.

Here we are, almost six months into this. Gas prices are back up over $4 a gallon. The American people are war weary of this because they're like, we didn't ask for this in the first place. You promised us no forever wars. This feels like a quagmire. You haven't explained to us why we're here, how this is benefiting us. You keep repeating, we don't want Iran to have a nuclear weapon. Yes, but what you're doing has nothing to do with Iran's nuclear program. We're over here arguing over the Strait of Hormuz, which was something that wasn't closed or an issue before Donald Trump decided to go after Iran this way without a real long-term strategic plan.

So, this is a problem and Republicans know that it's a problem, and even Donald Trump's own base is questioning his truthfulness with them. He's promised them they wouldn't do this. He has betrayed his own people again on this. What else is he betraying them on? Well, affordability crisis is a hoax apparently, according to Donald Trump, and he's too busy with his vanity projects in D.C. Meanwhile, people are suffering in this country. And Republicans know that's going to cost them in November.

PHILLIP: In Trump's speech today and when he was in Georgia, he insisted that inflation is coming down. He says he inherited very high inflation from Biden, which is not true. When he came into office, it was lower than where it is now.

And I wonder is he kind of in denial here? Because here's a Fox News poll that just came out. It said 34 percent of Americans now say that inflation has caused a serious financial hardship to them. That's up eight points from the same time a year ago in July of 2025. And that's -- and if you look at the numbers over time, which it's not on the screen, but if you look at it over time, that's about where it was when Biden was president and it was at its worst, when inflation was at those high percentages that Trump keeps complaining about.

GERALDO RIVERA, PEABODY AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST: I think the bad news is being driven by the what's happening in the Mid East, what's happening with Iran. My rule after decades of covering that region is that the news always gets worse. Now, you're locked in this strike, counterstrike, eye for an eye, bridge for a bridge. You know, where does it end? Everybody's getting melancholy because they're watching the prices go up even as the situation there turns worse every day.

Now, there'll come a time when just from sheer exhaustion they'll stop killing each other at this rate. You know, the infrastructure of Iran will be sufficiently devastated, that they'll be, you know, just like, after World War I. It's a situation where we're locked in and we're in worse off shape now than we were, and I think that these prices are going to continue to climb.

DINA DOLL, HOST, MEIDASTOUCH: And, really, Rand Paul's point about the Republicans are going to be hurt in the midterm, as they should because Congress is completely giving up their constitutional right to authorize war. We're well past the 60 days and there's not a peep. Mike Johnson is willing to go along.

So, yes, Trump is out there lying all the time. He's out there claiming the fallen soldiers are saying things that I'm very sure they did not say to him. But the Republicans in Congress who are on the ballot come November have done nothing to insert their constitutional authority to decide whether or not we go to war. Have that conversation to have the vote.

PHILLIP: Here's another quote from Rand Paul talking about just how the administration could come asking hat in hand for more money when they never asked Congress to even go into this war in the first place.

[22:10:01]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: It is completely and utterly fiscally irresponsible to someone to ask for a 50 percent increase in the military, but they're not asking for the approval of Congress. We have a war that we have not voted upon, no Congressional vote. Look, George Bush, at the very least, came to Congress. He asked for a war -- an authorization for the use of military force for Afghanistan and for Iraq. Without a vote, and yet then he wants us to give him a 50 percent increase?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: Yes. So, he's talking there about the defense budget, which they even before this latest supplemental, they wanted to boost by an additional 50 percent. And, again, Americans are so negative about their financial situation. They, by and large, think that things are getting worse. The president has now returned to his whole tariff thing after resoundingly Americans said that was bad policy. And now he's basically saying, let's just give, you know, billions and billions of dollars to the defense budget, and not to the things that affect your pocketbook.

T.W. ARRIGHI, VICE PRESIDENT, PUSH DIGITAL GROUP: Well, before we get too far moved, thoughts with the four fallen, I think we tend to get lost and this gets -- it tends to be lost how great of work our men and women in uniform have done in Iran, whether it be Midnight Hammer, whether it be the opening entrees of Epic Fury. Even these bombing raids now, 900 ships have been transported through the Strait of Hormuz with U.S. naval might. That cannot be understated. And to Noah's point, that you would think we were getting our butts handed to us the way that you often hear it portrayed in the media, but it's not the case. Our men and women are performing incredibly admirably.

But to your point I think a lot of this would be treated differently if Donald Trump also messaged completely differently. We have heard that he didn't make the selling points, but he hasn't made a selling point on really any accomplishments he's had thus far. We should have been talking about the no tax on tip, no tax on Social Security, no tax on overtime way more than we have. We don't hear about TrumpRx enough. We don't hear about investment accounts enough. We didn't even hear about the housing bill. He didn't even sign it. So, all these things would be helpful in the messaging to the affordability point. In November, everyone's going to be voting on affordability, as you just showed in those poll numbers.

So, yes, the president does not have the luxury to focus on only one thing at any one moment. He has to be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. Iran is a threat, but so is people's pocketbooks.

PHILLIP: He doesn't believe that the pocketbook issue is a real one.

SETMAYER: Right.

PHILLIP: I think that's part of the problem.

SETMAYER: He called it a hoax. He called it a hoax.

ARRIGHI: He's reading the polls.

ROTHMAN: Yes. He doesn't want to acknowledge --

ARRIGHI: Whether he's not -- whether he's saying it out loud is another thing.

(CROSSTALKS)

PHILLIP: You seem to suggest that, I mean, he thinks everything is trending in the right direction, which is not the case.

RIVERA: How does it end? If it's trending in the right direction, what's the end of this story? What's victory?

PHILLIP: Good question. Yes.

RIVERA: What does victory consist of? That we've battered them to the extent where, you know, the ship get through? But then some knucklehead with a RPG is going to shoot at this ship, that now you've got this 90 million people, huge country in the middle of everything, reaching out and --

PHILLIP: And can I just say also I think that's a totally a valid question, but it almost seems like this conflict has gotten even beyond that. I mean, the one big chunk of problems, which is the economic impact of this is one thing. But the other big chunk of problems that the president has is that he actually now kind of has to win this war. Like he has to get to a point where Iran is actually really and truly defeated, where they actually really and truly turn over their nuclear program or something close to it.

And if he doesn't get that, then what he's really done is open a massive can of worms for the entire planet.

RIVERA: Exactly.

ROTHMAN: Well, yes. I mean, to a certain extent. It's not like Iran was quiet and passive before February of this year. We've been interdicting Iranian plots and consistently interdicting them since 1940 -- or 1979.

To your point, how does this end, and is there a point at which we can open up the strait even if there's some harassment in the strait, that's sort of the condition that prevails in the Strait of Malacca, prevails around the Horn of Africa, for the last five years has prevailed in the Bab el-Mandeb, which we should probably talk about. And those are priced in. Shipping interests and insurers can price that in and reduce the level of threat that are experienced by commercial interests, which is really what's stopping a lot of the traffic in the strait. So, the president, to the extent that there is a --

RIVERA: But you're not answering the question. Are you going to kill all the Iranians?

SETMAYER: And that wasn't an issue before February 28th in the Strait of Hormuz.

ROTHMAN: It was.

SETMAYER: No, not to this extent, it was not. If it weren't --

ROTHMAN: Not to this extent.

SETMAYER: No, it was not.

ROTHMAN: with the exception of '87 and '88, which was worse.

SETMAYER: Listen, this is all wonderful, but you -- have you guys met Donald Trump, the guy does not make decisions strategically and doesn't have the temperament to have this conversation where you're going into, how do we go into a military conflict that puts our men and women in uniform in harm's way?

[22:15:10]

What does victory actually look like? What is the reason we're doing this? What is Congress going to say? They don't do -- he doesn't do that.

Now, he's got himself in this war of choice where it's almost like he's governing by temper tantrum, and now he's got us involved in potentially another conflict.

ROTHMAN: But, Tara, I also -- I hear so often that --

SETMAYER: Wait. You have the Houthis going now after what's happening within, you know --

ROTHMAN: So, is the problem that the president doesn't have the patience for this campaign and will slink away at the nearest opportunity?

SETMAYER: Hearing that the intelligence beyond the patience, but go ahead.

ROTHMAN: Or is the problem that he's so headstrong, that he's so aggressive, so hawkish, that he's going to royal us in a quagmire?

SETMAYER: He's delusional.

ROTHMAN: It can't be both. SETMAYER: He's delusional, and he's lying to the American people. He's trying to convince himself that there, somehow, that there's victory on the horizon, and it's not, and that is a problem for him and the entire world.

PHILLIP: All right.

ROTHMAN: He's had the opportunity.

PHILLIP: Next for us, battleground Arizona. The primary results are in, and the president's candidates have won. So, what the November elections are going to look like with these election deniers now on the ballot.

Plus 18 days in Minnesota, the killings of two Americans, Renee Good and Alex Pretti, by federal agents, and the chaos and cover-up that our reporting reveals.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:20:00]

PHILLIP: Tonight, Donald Trump is declaring victory in the battleground state of Arizona after MAGA candidates and election deniers won big in their primary contests. Trump took the Truth Social to celebrate, calling last night's victories a complete sweep. Arizona is becoming a Republican state, he said.

Congressman Andy Biggs won the Republican nomination for governor, setting up a November clash with Democratic incumbent Governor Katie Hobbs. He was first elected to Congress in 2016, and Biggs established himself as a hardline conservative who voted against the certification of Biden's election victory in 2020.

Now, Hobbs is among the most vulnerable Democratic incumbents in the country after she defeated conservative firebrand Kari Lake by less than a percentage point in 2022.

In another contest with significant stakes for how elections are held in Arizona, State Representative Alexander Kolodin won the nomination for secretary of state. Kolodin was involved in multiple lawsuits challenging the legitimacy of the 2020 and 2022 elections in Arizona and represented fake electors in efforts to disqualify mail-in ballots.

This seems like one of those things like you bite off your nose to spite your face kind of thing. Trump has a long history of choosing the more extreme candidates in Arizona, which is a particular state that is actually probably trending conservative but has kind of made it clear that they don't necessarily want extremism.

DOLL: Absolutely. I mean, congratulations for him winning a Republican primary, so excited for Trump. I mean, the fact that he has to put out a Truth Social post on that, I would think his candidate is going to win a primary. They're going to not do as well in the general election.

Katie Hobbs, the current governor, was the secretary of state at the time that Trump tried to attack the 2020 election. That was her kind of rise to fame, and got her elected as governor.

You know, I grew up in Arizona, and the Republicans there are like a more independent type of Republicans than in other states. John McCain's maverick Republicanism was a reflection of Arizona voters. It wasn't as if he imposed that on him. They very much believe in small government.

This idea that they were trying to take away their vote, that doesn't bode well with Arizona voters. And here's the thing. He has now, has three people he endorsed in the primaries, the governor, the secretary of state, and attorney general, all election deniers. He did this on purpose.

Arizona, of course, has, you know, been a purple state. It will be in 2028. And those three positions are key to running successful elections. Just ask California. Rob Bonta, Shirley Weber, you know, Gavin Newsom, those three make sure to protect the citizens' right to vote, and so it's not an accident he did that.

PHILLIP: I mean, I also wonder, T.W., I mean, in another world in which Trump could stay on message, and maybe he might talk about the economy, whatever, maybe they might skirt by. But you know he's going to make this election about elections. He is going to make it about that. So, this issue is going to come up in that state.

ARRIGHI: It is. I'm of the opinion that if we're looking backwards to 2020, and that's becoming a campaign issue, we're not going in the right direction. I have no problem talking about election security. I have no problem talking about voter I.D., and the need for it, even part -- a lot of parts of the SAVE Act. Those I think are fertile ground, because I think they make sense to the average person.

But making a mistake about it, it's not just election deniers who won in Arizona. Mark Lamb, Sheriff Mark Lamb, who was outspent ten to one, won by 17 points, not a -- more in the mainstream. Jay Feely, the former NFL kicker, he's going to be a very formidable candidate. Juan Ciscomani is back in the driver's seat. There are a lot of bright spots in Arizona, aside from the two folks you mentioned there who are election deniers. And Andy Biggs, by the way, heads the fullback of Turning Point USA, and they're going to be hitting the ground hard, and so we'll see where it all winds up.

SETMAYER: Well, the fact that Turning Point USA is endorsing candidates is -- it should frighten Democrats, because there is no infrastructure on the Democratic side that can rival what Turning Point is doing.

[22:25:03]

And none of that is great for those of us who actually believe in free and fair elections, and the truth perpetuating a lot of propaganda on that side. All of those other bright spots in Arizona, that's great, except that Donald Trump doesn't care about them. He cares about the people -- to Dina's part -- yes, but he cares about, to Dina's point, the people who are in the positions that can influence the elections. They're sending, the Department of Justice just announced they're sending monitors to Arizona. That's not by accident. Donald Trump is coming for our elections in the midterms and setting it up for 2028. We know this. He's telegraphing it. And this is another example of him doing that by endorsing candidates that do not believe in free and fair elections and re-litigating 2020 and conspiracy theories.

RIVERA: The fact that -- the one thing about talking about the future and projecting what's going to happen is that we tend to then neglect what is, to me, the biggest story, political story, how Donald Trump, the president of the United States, has made liars of the entire Republican Party.

He has -- when you ask a straight on question, who won the election? If they can't answer that question, then everything else they're saying is B.S. I just think that when the groupthink, the -- it's like they've all had a -- and I'm a Republican.

PHILLIP: Well, it's a litmus test.

SETMAYER: It should be at least.

PHILLIP: You can't even get past the front door.

RIVERA: How did we get there, for God's sake?

ROTHMAN: It's not quite the entire Republican Party because the people who objected were run out of town on a rail, right?

RIVERA: Yes, right.

ROTHMAN: I mean, it's not how many --

(CROSSTALKS)

PHILLIP: It's interesting because John McCain's widow, Cindy McCain, and his son, are actually both holding fundraisers for Katie Hobbs.

ROTHMAN: Well, they were censured by their Arizona Republican Party.

PHILLIP: Yes. I mean --

ROTHMAN: They turned on Doug Ducey, they turned on Jeff Flake, they turned on John McCain, the people who could win statewide. And, by the way, this is the, this is what the president unleashed, the civil war in this party.

Democrats, look to Arizona for your future. This is what it looks like when you get taken over by a branch of the party that has an ideological mission and is purging anybody who dissents. This is what it looks like. And it doesn't result in statewide victories. It results in chaos, confusion and, frankly, embarrassment for the rest of us who have to watch.

SETMAYER: Are we going to -- we're going to relive the Cyber Ninjas? I mean, remember that fiasco? The Cyber Ninjas came in to do an election audit, and they went through all that rigmarole, wasted Arizona taxpayer money to find out that, guess what, Joe Biden actually got a couple more votes than Donald Trump did, and they didn't find any election fraud.

I mean, this whole thing is asinine, but it's also very serious because this is a microcosm of what Donald Trump wants to do in other places, in swing states, in our elections. We have to pay close attention to what he's doing.

I'm telling you, he's telegraphing this. This is serious.

DOLL: And to your point about the lie, and the reason it's so dangerous is because I can't tell you the number of people I talk to now who -- Democrats, who don't believe our elections are fair. The more that he talks about the fact that 2020 is stolen, the more that everybody else parrots it, the more he tries to get people elected who parrot it, we -- none of us are going to trust our elections, and that's the bedrock of our democracy.

PHILLIP: Next here for us, an exclusive CNN investigation, 18 days in Minnesota, the chaos, lies, and cover-ups after federal agents killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti.

[22:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIP: Tonight, quote, "someone's going to get killed". That chilling premonition coming from a federal agent just days before Renee Good and Alex Pretti were killed at the hands of federal immigration agents in January. A new CNN investigation called 18 Days in Minnesota looks behind the scenes into the fateful days surrounding the deaths of Good and Pretti six months ago.

The report examines how over-aggressive enforcement policies contributed to the deaths of two American citizens, how lying about violence committed by federal agents became a reoccurring pattern, and how federal law enforcement broke from precedent and refused to cooperate with local authorities looking to investigate. For the first time, we're exclusively hearing on camera from Tom Calhoun-Lopez, one of the federal prosecutors who resigned in protest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOM CALHOUN-LOPEZ, FORMER ASSISTANT U.S. ATTORNEY, MINNESOTA: Hundreds of agents were flooding in from out of district. They weren't familiar with Minnesota communities. They weren't familiar with Minnesota residents.

And operationally, they were in a paramilitary posture as well. They were heavily armed, they were in masks, they patrolled in combat gear. And their ethos was of a military occupying force. Their mission seemed to be to subdue the state and to bring it to

heel.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR, "THE LEAD": You know from occupation because you're a veteran.

CALHOUN-LOPEZ: That's correct. I deployed to Iraq twice, once as a field artillery officer and once as an Army judge advocate.

TAPPER: And it reminded you of that kind of occupation?

CALHOUN-LOPEZ: It did. Through two different deployments, I got to see what a military occupation looked like. And unfortunately, Operation Metro Surge had all the hallmarks of a military occupation.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: The administration eventually withdrew from Minnesota, Geraldo, but no sense that there were any real policy changes that came along with that.

[22:35:03]

I mean, this report really details a pattern of lying, a pattern of cover-ups, and also the disregard for process at the expense of the lives of American citizens.

GERALDO RIVERA, PEABODY AWARD-WINNING JOURNALIST: Well, congratulations to Tapper and the whole team. We don't do enough hard looks, long-term looks.

To me, the image of the masked ICE agent, masked alone, no FBI mask, no sheriff's mask, no cop mask, but those guys, ICE and those masks, and then the dead, the beginning, those two, and then seven more, more recent weeks and months. It's horrifying. They wrecked the U.S. Attorney's Office in that town.

Bovino became the face of immigration enforcement. You know, the President closed the border. Bravo, and I think he deserves props for that, it was chaotic under Biden.

But now that he's closed it to treat migrants in this way as if they were somehow subhuman, and the people that support them are complicit in the eyes of these paranoid paramilitary forces, it's just awful what happened.

What happened to Minneapolis was terrible, but what's happening to the millions of undocumented immigrants in this country, some of them for decades, many of them without any blemish, not even a speeding ticket. They're children, citizens. They have now been terrorized, beginning in Minneapolis, terrorized in these other communities around the country.

It's so disheartening to me. Again, another war.

What's the end result of making tens of millions, many of them Latinos, making them the other is really (inaudible).

PHILLIP: I mean, Noah, respond to that. What do you make of Geraldo's assessment of all of this?

NOAH ROTHMAN, SENIOR WRITER, "NATIONAL REVIEW"; Well, I think it's an astute assessment. I thought that report was very good reporting. A lot of it is enraging, and I am an American concerned with good government.

You should be furious at an executive agency, the deputies of which are lying to federal judges. On the record, that's established. They're creating chaos through the ranks by not disseminating information.

There was, however, elements of that report with which I took issue. Hyperbole, like what we heard about the notion that this being an occupying force, the gentleman's commendable service to the country notwithstanding, that is hyperbolic, diminishes the nature of occupational forces.

And the second --

PHILLIP: Well, I think that has to do --

TARA SETMAYER, CO-FOUNDER AND CEO, THE SENECA PROJECT, AND SUBSTACK AUTHOR, "UNCOMPROMISED WITH TARA SETMAYER": As the people of Minneapolis, Abby --

PHILLIP: Don't worry about that. Because of the sheer numbers. I mean, I think it was 3000.

ROTHMAN: Numbers is not an occupation force.

PHILLIP: It was like 3000 federal agents who flooded the streets of a relatively small American city. I mean, that's a lot of people.

ROTHMAN: Real quick. The biggest problem that I had with the reporting was an anonymous quote. I believe it was anonymous that identified Bongino's motives, at least speculated about his motives, that he wanted to start a war.

PHILLIP: Bovino.

ROTHMAN: Bovino, thank you. That absolves the individuals who engaged in the kind of harassment techniques that we heard in the background in that clip. You know, people didn't even remember the degree to which there was coordinated campaigns designed to mobilize people to get out in the streets, get in the faces of law enforcement, scream in their faces, put whistles in their faces, distract them, disorient them.

These are armed agents. Follow them with cars.

RIVERA: But your tone is exactly the tone I remember from parents in 1969, 1970.

ROTHMAN: If they were telling you not to get in the face of an armed police officer, they were right.

RIVERA: But the occupying forces, you call it hyperbole, but it's almost traditional in this kind of --

SETMAYER: And that doesn't give you the right to shoot them and murder American citizens and people protesting. That's part of the problem.

PHILLIP: I think what you're referring to is a call that Bovino had with prosecutors where he reportedly said,

"These people are wackos. The shit is getting ready to come. We're not putting up with anything in this city.

It's coming. We're not going to calm it down. We're going to put it down."

Bovino responded to that by essentially saying that he doesn't remember exactly what he said, but that the idea of putting down protests was not something that he would say. But this is what the reporting is. And I mean, even if -- whether he said it or not, the actions kind of illustrate that there was no attempt to turn the dial down on this stuff for a long time in Minnesota.

DINA DOLL, MEIDASTOUCH HOST: I mean, absolutely. And the thing is that this is not an aberration. It was not a mistake that they sent armed guards massed into the street, not trained.

Not a mistake that they don't have the body cameras. Not a mistake that after the birthright citizenship case was upheld, the white supremacy base in Trump's party is getting even more emboldened and powerful. They don't want people with a certain color of skin or an accent to be in this country.

[22:40:06]

And so all of this is effective. What it does is it scares people. It scares people to self-deport, it scares people not to come, it scares people to not go to the grocery store.

In the city of L.A., there are people who have not gone to the grocery store. It is working exactly how they want it to work.

ROTHMAN: I'm going to tell you that's exactly what Republicans want to hear. That is exactly what they want to hear.

They want to hear that immigration enforcement is racist because the country doesn't believe that.

DOLL: This immigration enforcement is racist. If you were going to be at the border and enforce the border, if you're thousands of miles in Minneapolis and shooting, murdering, we all saw in real time what happened, murdering with no accountability, it's because you are okay with that happening.

T.W. ARRIGHI, VICE PRESIDENT, PUSH DIGITAL GROUP: I am willing to concede the point that Bovino's leadership over this entire operation was abysmal. And just from a P.R. standpoint, it dug a massive hole for the President who believes that one of his driving forces being elected was the crackdown on the wave of illegal immigration he saw the four years prior.

I think the American people are on the side of the law. They want the laws of this country upheld both for immigrants and those coming into this country illegally but also for law enforcement. And I think the standard needs to hold for both.

So a lot in that reporting, you saw law enforcement not living up to their obligations. But the underside of all of this, the context of all of this, is finally enforcing immigration policy, both of which are necessary, both of which need to happen.

PHILLIP: We have to go after this. I just want to make a note.

Trump has lost support on immigration since all of this has been going on. And I think if there's any indication of how bad this is for him, it's at an issue that, yes, he ran on and that he maybe won on. He's not maintained a lead on that. It's become, just like all the other issues, something that voters don't really trust him on, which is a problem for him.

SETMAYER: And civil rights matter also, which were violated exponentially during this entire thing, too.

PHILLIP: Coming up next for us, New York City's mayor admits now that he doesn't have the authority to arrest Benjamin Netanyahu, but he says the federal government should do it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

Tonight, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is walking back a campaign pledge, conceding he doesn't have the legal authority to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR ZOHRAN MAMDANI (D), NEW YORK CITY: My administration has reviewed every avenue available under applicable law to determine whether New York City could execute the International Criminal Court's arrest warrant if Benjamin Netanyahu came here. It is clear that we do not have the independent legal authority to enforce this warrant.

The federal government, however, does. And I call on them to join the ICC and execute this warrant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: President Trump has already shut down that idea, posting on Truth Social, that the Israeli leader will not be arrested in any way, shape, or form while here in the United States. Mamdani's reversal comes just days after he told The "New York Times" that he was working with the city's legal team on how to execute an arrest of the Israeli leader for alleged war crimes in Gaza.

Netanyahu responded to the interview, defending Israel's actions and rejecting the legitimacy of the ICC. Netanyahu is expected to travel to the U.N. General Assembly in September.

Now, the mayor says he's not welcome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAMDANI: We are talking about someone who has been charged with crimes against humanity. Someone who has visited this city on many an occasion and who has been welcomed by previous mayors.

And I want to make it very clear that that welcome ends with me. I will not be welcoming Benjamin Netanyahu or any other war criminals when they come to this city.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHILLIP: So Mamdani there is stating, I guess what seems somewhat obvious, truths about the situation. But does it help him or hurt him, Tara, that he's even going down this road?

SETMAYER: Well, it depends on who you're asking. Does it help or hurt him with whom?

Listen, this was a P.R. stunt. This is consistent with his position on Israel and that whole debacle. It's also consistent with the, you know, as a DSA person, very strong feelings about Israel and Benjamin Netanyahu.

And listen, Netanyahu has committed war crimes. He has gone completely off the rails over the years, he's in trouble in Israel. A lot of what's going on here with Donald Trump.

PHILLIP: He's in trouble in the United States.

SETMAYER: Yes, it's true.

PHILLIP: The reason he's saying that in part is that Netanyahu's approval rating is not great here in America.

SETMAYER: It's not.

And so this is, but at the same time, you know, we can't abandon Israel. They are our ally in the region. It's an important strategic partnership.

But there needs to be a reset here with what's going on with Israel. But he knows, he knew that he did not have the authority to do this. This was a publicity stunt for him.

And so now it's bringing this back into the conversation. Because if you look at what's happening in places like Michigan and others, where AIPAC and these conversations about Netanyahu and Israel, that is part of the primary process going on here and part of the internecine warfare with Democrats. So I think there was another part of this.

[22:50:06]

PHILLIP: He talked to Jon Stewart about this. Jon Stewart pressed him about whether or not this was a distraction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP0

JON STEWART, HOST, "THE WEEKLY SHOW" PODCAST: Is there a sense you have that maybe, is that a distraction from all these other things that you want to do? Is that taking a little bit more of the media space than you realized?

MAMDANI: Well, I think I have a responsibility to be honest with New Yorkers. And when I'm asked a question to answer it honestly, the focus always has to be on the work that you're doing and how you find a balance between, you know, not giving your kind of a classic, you know, a political deflection where you don't want to answer any of those questions and focusing on the work and still finding that together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROTHMAN: This has been a pathetic 24 hours for the mayor of New York City. He, on that video, was very angry while he conceded every point that his critics have made for the last 10 months, which I guess makes the people he duped feel better.

He uniquely appeals to international law as though it was a thing that should trump the Constitution as the supreme law of the country. He will be ignored.

He said that Netanyahu is not welcome in New York City, he will be ignored. And among the litany of things that he accused Netanyahu of, the elected head of government of Israel, who is supported by the Israeli people, and by the way --

SETMAYER: Not for long.

ROTHMAN: You know what? Any other government, including the Blue and White Coalition, would pursue the same strategy that he is pursuing.

One of the things Zohran Mamdani accused him of was murdering, killing 73,000 Palestinians. Those numbers come from the Gaza Health Ministry. And they include Hamas fighters.

So one of two things is true. Either he doesn't know what he's talking about or he really does know what he's talking about and what he's doing is apologizing for terrorists with American blood on their hands.

DOLL: Okay, this is an undercount. They haven't even begun to count the people --

ROTHMAN: So there's more terrorists than we can apologize for.

DOLL: As an Arab-American and a secretary, former secretary of the Arab American Caucus of the California Democratic Party, I have to say my community has been desperate for somebody to at least name the horrors that the Palestinian people have endured with the backing of our government.

Why can't that have a voice in this country? He had unflinching clarity.

He doesn't go into the why's, the how's, even judgment. He just said exactly what happened and everything he said is backed up by evidence.

And it has taken way too long for somebody to say exactly what's happening and call it out. It's the bare minimum.

ROTHMAN: But what about October 7th? What about the slaughter and the rape and the murder of the Jews on October 7th?

DOLL: And everybody had a voice on that.

PHILLIP: I'll just note that he did address that today. He was asked, would you support the arrest of Palestinian Hamas leaders who were responsible for October 7th? And he said, yes.

He said, my statement was anybody who is accused of war crimes by the ICC.

ARRIGHI: I'm sorry. I'm sorry.

SETMAYER: I'm telling you what he said.

PHILLIP: He didn't say that at the time. I would say also he was very clear that he believed October 7th was a war crime.

ARRIGHI: Great. I never heard him say that if Iranians come to the U.N., he's going to try to arrest Iranians for their war crimes.

ROTHMAN: He tried to meet with them.

ARRIGHI: You know what? Here's the thing. This would hold way more water.

PHILLIP: He canceled the meeting that one of his aides had scheduled.

ROTHMAN: Thank God for that.

ARRIGHI: This would hold so much more water if it genuinely was a part of a greater concern. Instead, he is playing footsies and endorsing candidates who occupy a part of the Democratic Party that is vitriolic not just toward Israelis, but the Jewish people who literally were at a pro-Palestinian rally on October the 8th endorsed with Mamdani's signature.

By the way, when he did all the different ethnic groups around New York, he left off Jewish communities. He also left off Italians as one.

It's embarrassing and is part of a groupthink among the far-left that is tearing their party apart and is going to make them unelectable across the country.

DOLL: I mean, it's about time there's some words for Palestinians. There's never a word. I have never heard anybody say what kind of protest or what kind of language is okay.

PHILLIP: All right. We'll leave it there.

SETMAYER: He needs to stay in his lane.

PHILLIP: Next for us, our panelists are going to react to your feedback from cnn.com/abby. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PHILLIP: And now viewer feedback from cnn.com/abby.

Abby, most people want to keep their home, keep groceries low, child care affordable, gas reasonable, and communities safe. This election will come down to that period.

I think everyone can agree to that.

SETMAYER: It's the economy, stupid.

PHILLIP: That's what it is. Always. And then we've got one more.

I'm old enough to remember the despair of Vietnam. The President at the time was not honest with our people and we should remember how that ended.

SETMAYER: Wise words and the President's not being honest with people now. Today he was at a rally calling it a little skirmish.

Earlier in the day, he was at the dignified transfer of service members who died. He minimizes it, uses them as political pawns, and the American people sees that.

RIVERA: The worst is yet to come.

PHILLIP: That's ominous. We'll leave it there.

Next for us, it is a Wednesday, so that means that there is a new episode of "Confessions and Obsessions." It's now streaming. Some familiar faces are going to join me this week, including Van Lathan, Ashley Allison, as they reveal some pretty wild secrets, including podcast hate, ending relationships over text, cults, and solo reservations. You can check it out at cnn.com/confessionsandobsessions or on the CNN app. Thank you very much for watching "NewsNight." "Laura Coates Live"

starts right now.