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Torrential Storms Bring Deadly Flooding To Central Texas; Trump Says White House Will Start Notifying Countries Of New U.S. Tariffs; Trump Grapples With Impacts Of Immigration Crackdown; Joey Chestnut And Miki Sudo Dominate Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired July 04, 2025 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: And what you're going to notice is this cement block here, that is a foundation of a home that used to exist. It will zoom in to an area, that is someone's front porch. There is no longer a home that used to be there. It was swept away from this raging torrent of water. And guess what? Some of these rainfall estimates are astounding. We're talking about, several months worth of rain in a very short period of time, over a foot where you see those shades of pink and white.
Here is a look at the Guadalupe River. There's going to be cresting along this river as the water flows southwards towards the San Antonio region. So this is that spring branch.
Look at it, stage at this morning, just over a foot and a half. By tomorrow morning at 5:00 a.m., it will be just shy of 35 feet. So, this flooding disaster is not yet over. So, here is the complex of thunderstorms that caught a lot of people off guard. I mean, kind of congealed into one large storm system, prompting these flash floods, flash flood emergency right here where you see that outline shading of white, more rainfall still ongoing for Kerrville and the greater Kerr County. This is important to note, Brianna.
This has some of the worst drought in the U.S. right now. So, the ground is -- it needs water, but it can't take this much water this quickly. So what does it do? It pools up and it floods. Back to you.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Yeah, it's not primed for it. Derek Van Dam, thank you so much. We know that you'll continue to keep an eye on this story.
New tariff threats from President Trump are unsettling markets around the world today. He says the White House will start sending out letters to many other trading partners, possibly as early as today, notifying them of new U.S. tariff rates on their products that would start in August. That's ahead of this Wednesday's deadline that was set by the president for new trade deals.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: I think by the 9th, they'll be fully covered and they'll range in value from maybe 60 or 70 percent tariffs to 10 and 20 percent tariffs.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Adding some suspense to all of this, it is not clear which countries are going to get those letters. With us now is Stew Leonard Jr., CEO of Stew Leonard's Grocery Stores. Always great to have you, Stew, as we, take a look at the --
STEW LEONARD JR., CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER, STEW LEONARD'S GROCERY STORES: Hi.
KEILAR: -- real impacts of this. Hello. So, the pause in these huge so-called reciprocal tariffs set to end after Tuesday going into Wednesday, if they go back into effect, are you going to have to increase prices? How are you preparing?
LEONARD JR.: You know what? There's a lot of uncertainty out there right now. We're just bobbing and weaving right now. We don't know what's happening. A lot of our suppliers have brought a lot of product in tequila from Mexico, wines from Europe, scotch, beer from Europe. They brought it in early pre-tariffs. So we got a little bit of an inventory State-side right now. So we haven't seen really any major tariff prices or anything, but they're looming out there.
My daughter went and bought a little -- she's got a little -- a stuffed toy that she wanted out of China. She had to pay 145 percent tariff to get that off. So she's complaining about that. We're going to have to raise the price of the plush toy, like $3 over the other ones we sell, but it'll be here for Christmas. So, we're bobbing and weaving a lot. There's some items, no problem, like (inaudible). How do you like this baby right here? OK.
(LAUGH)
LEONARD JR.: This is my little friend Charlie that I have at the store. I do this little show for the kids. I pet him like this and put him, and then I say --
KEILAR: Hi, Charlie.
LEONARD JR.: -- to the kids, Hey, hey. Yeah, I said, you can touch Charlie. Go ahead and do -- they talk about it for the rest of their life, just about it, so meaningful. But there's no tariffs on lobsters. There's no tariff on avocados right now, which are big items right now. And there's no tariff on U.S. beef right here. So, we just had Willie Randolph from the Mets in the store and he was practicing the swing.
KEILAR: How big is that?
LEONARD JR.: The Yankees, that is about five pounds right here, but it's so thick. Look, how the New Yorkers up here love them nice and thick like that. It takes you forever to grill this thing. You've got to do it long and slow on the grill. But, the tariffs really haven't affected us. I would say here at Stew Leonards, we had 100,000 customers this week coming in the store. The mood's pretty good. We haven't raised prices. They're about roughly the same as last year.
Eggs are down, tomatoes are down. Meat might have ticked up a little, a touch right now, because the herd sizes are so low. But overall, I think customers can enjoy a nice 4th of July at the same prices as last year.
KEILAR: Oh, that's really interesting. I think, that one of your folks there behind you heard you were talking about the steak because a cow just made an appearance behind you there, Stew.
(LAUGH)
LEONARD JR.: Oh, really?
KEILAR: -- which -- we've talked to you many times. I've never seen the cow mascot come out. OK. So --
LEONARD JR.: Oh, the cow came? Where's the cow?
KEILAR: The cow disappeared almost to make you question your sanity. It was hilarious though.
(LAUGH)
[13:35:00]
KEILAR: So, yeah. And the lobster. That's how I get my kids to go to the grocery store. We got to take a look at the lobsters there. So, talk a little bit about some of these items. Because, as you pointed out, I mean, some -- a lot of this stuff is domestic, and so that is helping, right?
LEONARD JR.: Right.
KEILAR: Are your customers -- you say they're going to be paying about the same prices, but I think like, when it comes to how they're thinking about things, that's another thing. So are they spending any different or have they changed their habits out of concern?
LEONARD JR.: It feels pretty good. The only thing we're noticing a little bit is like when you do a demo and you're sampling product, usually you just go taste it and you buy it. We're noticing people, do I really need this or should I stick to my shopping list strictly or not? So there's a little bit of hesitation, but I would say overall, customers are buying. It's like the Haagen-Dazs phenomena, even though everybody wants to lose weight, you still sell a lot of Haagen-Dazs. And it's the same thing right now.
Our prime beef sales seem to be doing well for the holidays. Our burgers, I mean, this is -- this -- you want to see the poster boy for the 4th of July? How's that thing look right there? OK?
KEILAR: Oh my gosh. So, this is what's going to be on the grill. We're selling thousands and thousands of burgers right now. Those prices are relatively the same. The mood of the customer is pretty good in the store, and there's a lot of red, white and blue coming in. I've never seen the customers so patriotic as they are this year.
(LAUGH)
KEILAR: Oh, that's awesome. Well, listen, this show, we are -- our food mascot is the hot dog, but that burger looks so good. You might almost convert us there, Stew. Stew, it is always -- oh, sorry. Go on.
LEONARD JR.: Thanks. I just want to put one little thing in there. My wife and I unfortunately had a little son that drowned in a pool 30 years ago. I have -- we have dedicated our life to helping more of the inner city kids learn to swim. And right now, it is drowning season. OK?
It's drowning season in the northeast. We're up right here near New York. And I would just encourage all the parents, put your cell phones down. OK? When the kids are around the pool, you got to have a designated watcher just like there is a designated driver for when you're -- you're -- Hey, come on over, hon. Come on. You want to see? I got one of our best customers today right here. My wife Kim. OK.
KEILAR: Stew, I so appreciate that you guys do that. PSA, I have to tell you because you're so right. This is the season for people to know and just taking your loss, which I'm sure still hurts so bad, and just letting people know what they need to be doing and to be on the lookout and to take it seriously. It happened so fast. It happened so silently. So, thank you for sharing that with our viewers. Stew, it's great to see you. Thank you so much.
(CROSSTALK)
LEONARD JR.: Hey, Happy 4th of July everybody. Thank you.
KEILAR: Happy 4th of July. Always great to see you, Stew, and we'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:42:27]
KEILAR: The Trump Administration's hard-line immigration agenda is posing significant challenges to farming and manufacturing industries. Sources tell CNN that behind the scenes, senior Trump officials and the president himself have grappled with the consequences of this crackdown against the migrant workforce. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is with us now on this story. So Priscilla, what can you tell us about how the Trump Administration is trying to respond to these concerns?
PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're taking a lot of incoming behind the scenes from various industry representatives who say that these immigration policies could dwindle their workforce and that is causing a lot of concern and frustration as one industry representative who was representing the manufacturing part of this, told me they're between a rock and a hard place.
The reason is because they are reliant on migrant workers, some of whom are undocumented, but others were here in the United States, we're legally working with protections. And then the Trump Administration stripped those protections. So it creates yet another conundrum. Now, administration officials are trying to work this and the president himself has clearly been grappling with this and you can see that through his public statements.
He is on the one hand saying that we should protect farm workers, while on the other hand, emboldening Immigration and Customs Enforcement to arrest as many people as possible. Now yesterday, in Iowa, the president appealed to farmers in the state and said the following.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're going to sort of put the farmers in charge. And if somebody, if a farmer's been with one of these people that worked so hard, they bend over all day. We don't have too many people who can do that. But they work very hard and they know them very well. And some of the farmers are literally just -- they cry when they see this happen. If a farmer's willing to vouch for these people, in some way, Kristi, I think we're going to have to just say that's going to be good.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ALVAREZ: Now, there's a lot of ambiguity in the president's statements, which is what is also causing some consternation among multiple groups. Not only those industries, but also immigration hardliners who don't want to see the president go too far in any type of release -- of relief. Now, the president there was referring to Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. While he has tasked her and the secretaries of labor and agriculture to try to find a solution. What that is, however, is very unclear.
They have set up an office to try to streamline any issues with visas because there are temporary work visas. But those temporary work visas sometimes only apply to farmers so it doesn't address, for example, manufacturing. And they are only temporary. So, sometimes a dairy farm who needs someone year round won't have those workers either. So, you can start to see how this becomes very complicated for the administration as it tries to not agitate key constituencies, as well as try not to cause political tension with immigration hardliners who don't want the president to go too far down any sort of relief for these industries.
[13:45:00]
KEILAR: We will have to keep an eye on how he's planning to thread that needle and we know you will. Priscilla, thank you so much for the reporting. Still ahead, to quote Mean Girls and I promise that this will kind of maybe make some sense in the context of our next story, I'm not like the other moms. I'm a cool mom. But what actually makes someone cool? Well, scientists say they have the recipe. We're going to bring that to you next.
(LAUGH)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:50:05]
KEILAR: Who do you think is the coolest person at your 4th of July barbecue? Well, it turns out that coolness may not be so subjective after all. A new study finds that those cool people you know may have six things in common. CNN Health Reporter Jacqueline Howard has the list.
JACQUELINE HOWARD, CNN HEALTH REPORTER: This is really fascinating. Research scientists say there are six character traits that are associated with someone being perceived as cool. Those six traits are: Cool people appear to be more extroverted, hedonistic, powerful, adventurous, open, and autonomous. And the researchers say these six traits appear to be consistent across cultures, across countries. And this is no matter someone's age, gender, or education level.
The researchers came to this finding when they conducted experiments on nearly 6,000 people across 12 different countries. They asked these study participants to think about someone in their lives who they perceive as cool. Then they asked the participants to identify different character traits that make that person cool, and that's when these six attributes emerged. The researchers say they also asked the participants to think of someone who they perceive to be as good and a completely different set of traits emerged. There was some overlap, but the researchers say, overall, cool and good are not the same.
And the researchers told me, cool and popular are not the same. Someone could be well liked and popular, but not have these six attributes that make them cool. And when I asked the researchers to name a public figure or a celebrity who they think meets these six traits, Co-Lead Researcher Todd Pezzuti told me that he thinks this controversial person, Elon Musk appears to meet these six traits.
When I asked him to break this down, he said that Musk appears to be extroverted when you look at his social media activity. He appears to be hedonistic because we saw him smoke marijuana on the Joe Rogan podcast. He appears to be powerful, we saw him in the White House.
He appears to be adventurous and open based on his work with SpaceX and his plans to settle Mars. And he appears to be autonomous. While that's one example, we also have seen other examples in pop culture with the "Mean Girls" movie or Olivia Pope in "Scandal", or "Top Gun", or The Great Gatsby, or even Foxy Brown and Shaft.
So, this is fascinating research when we think about culture, society, and personality traits that may make someone appear to be cool.
KEILAR: Very interesting. Jacqueline Howard, thank you so much. And moments ago, Joey Chestnut making his big return to Nathan's Famous Hotdog Eating Contest. And I mean, no surprise here, he completely devoured the competition. Patrick Snell is with us. As expected, Patrick, we had him on yesterday. We talked to him. This seemed almost like a foregone conclusion. Am I right?
(LAUGH) PATRICK SNELL, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely. Brianna, this is why I get really hungry. Nevermind, cool. This is why I get really, really hungry. This is the tradition like Noah (ph), every 4th of July, thousands upon thousands descending on the Coney Island boardwalk to watch the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest. This is showdown, plenty of eyes on it as always. Joey Chestnut returning after being banned. Remember that, last year, over a sponsorship issue? Well, there's a mouthwatering performance and Chestnut bringing his full (inaudible) triumphant return to Coney Island.
Just 10 minutes. Yep, 10 minutes only. He would eat 70 and a half hot dogs and buns to win his 17th title in the event. While that's not his highest total ever, he did beat the next best competitor by 24 hot dogs. Let's hear now from the all conquering Chestnut.
JOEY CHESTNUT, 17-TIME NATHAN'S FAMOUS HOT DOG EATING CONTEST CHAMP: Oh my gosh, I was nervous. First couple of hot dogs, I was fumbling a little bit, but I found a pretty good rhythm. My goal was 70 to 77. I really wanted a little bit more, but you know what, dude, there's next year and I'm just happy I'm here and Happy 4th of July.
(LAUGH)
SNELL: Indeed. And in the women's competition, Miki Sudo remaining at the top of the hotdog eating game. This is absolutely superb from her. There's no beating her quite clearly. On Friday, The New Yorker, winning her 11th title at this contest, 33 franks and buns consumed in 10 minutes. She holds the women's record of 51, which she set at the event a year ago. A (inaudible) race between second and third at least, Michelle Lesco edging out Dominica Dee for runner up. Sudo the winner though, but still not fully satisfied, it seems.
MIKI SUDO, WOMEN'S WINNER, NATHAN'S FAMOUS HOT DOG EATING CONTEST: I feel like I've let the -- I let the fans down a little bit.
[13:55:00]
I heard people in the crowd saying, go for 52. And obviously, I'm always setting my goals high. But, you know the hot dogs just weren't cooperating. So for some reason, the buns felt larger today.
(LAUGH)
SNELL: Just not cooperating. Brianna, right back to you.
KEILAR: All right. Patrick Snell, thank you so much for that. And really, the glizzy is the food mascot of our show. Really just a bummer that Boris could not be here for that story. So, we're just honoring him really, so that he could join us as well with this big picture of his head that we managed to find somewhere here at CNN.
He's not with us because he has a huge day ahead of him. He's going to be filling in here for Kasie Hunt in the next hour after our show. But then he is got this big night, the "Fourth in America". This is going to be so great tonight. Be sure to join CNN for this holiday event, coast to coast fireworks, musical performances by Noah Kahan, Lainey Wilson, Dierks Bentley, Nelly, and so much more.
You can celebrate the Fourth with Dana Bash and of course, our friend of the program, Boris Sanchez. That's going to start tonight at 7:00 p.m. Eastern. We'll have more news after a short break.
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