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Search And Rescue Efforts In Flood-Ravaged Texas Enter Day 5; Kerr County Officials Face Questions On Flood Response Timeline; Trump Addresses Texas Floods, Tariffs at Cabinet Meeting; Trump: "I'm Not Happy with Putin." Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired July 08, 2025 - 15:00   ET

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

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[15:00:04]

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We're following breaking news out of Central Texas, the death toll climbing as Kerr County officials have struggled to answer basic questions on the flood response timeline. What we know about that timeline and the ongoing search for those still missing.

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Plus, at a meeting with his Cabinet, President Trump vents about Vladimir Putin why he says the Russian president has been throwing quite a lot of, quote, "B.S."

And it is the end of an era, the next time you go through Airport security in the U.S. You may not have to take shoes off.

We're following these major developing stories and many more all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is CNN Breaking News.

SANCHEZ: Thank you so much for sharing your afternoon with us. We begin this hour with breaking news. Recovery efforts from the catastrophic flooding here in Central Texas are now in their fifth day and the hope of finding survivors is dwindling as each minute passes. We're also now getting a new terrifying look at the disaster as it was taking shape early Friday morning.

Watch this. This is a cabin ripped off of its foundation at Camp La Junta. People were still trapped inside as it was being carried in the rushing water. Somehow, fortunately, we're told that everyone inside was able to escape to safety. Sadly, that was not the case for so many others.

Officials today raising the death toll to at least a hundred and eight people. And there are new questions today about what actions officials were taking as the river began to rise rapidly. This morning, reporters pushed for answers at what became a contentious media briefing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With all due respect, sir, I think that the community here is asking these questions. What happened? When did it happen? Was the emergency manager awake at the time? Did they push the button to issue an emergency alert?

SHERIFF LARRY LEITHA, KERR COUNTY, TEXAS: Sir, it's not that easy and you just push a button, okay? There's a lot more to that. And we've told you several times ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) so did it happen here?

LEITHA: I can't tell you at this time, okay?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't tell me the emergency manager of the county actually issued an emergency alert.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: As we work to get those answers, we are also struggling to get an exact estimate from officials at this point of exactly how many people are still missing. Keep in mind, this is a very popular area for vacationers. People love the Guadalupe River and this was 4th of July weekend, so there's a lot of folks that were coming in from out of town as well as campers as we've seen with Camp Mystic and others.

On top of that, you have conditions that right now are extremely difficult. I can tell you it is sweltering out here. It is extremely hot and you have piles and piles of debris. This is along a river. You're looking at a live image in Kerrville of a bridge that was struck with what I imagine are thousands if not 10s of thousands of pounds of trees, vehicles, homes and businesses just all sorts of detritus.

Among that debris, there are bedsheets, clothing children's toys, fragments of life that right now crews are searching through in the hope that they might find a miracle, that they might discover a survivor. And if not, at the very least, that they could find evidence, that would provide the families who right now are in shambles, hoping to get answers for their missing loved ones some kind of relief.

We want to take you to Center Point, Texas right now where we find CNN's Isabel Rosales.

Isabel, you're at a very active scene right now. Take us through what you're seeing what efforts are taking place there.

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right, Boris. This is a raw query in Center Point and you can see that there are firefighters, state police or volunteers, the United Cajun Navy is here. And basically, the brunt of the search effort is in this direction. The Guadalupe River is to the left, but this right here wasn't there before. It would look like a normal lake, but this is supposed to be dry. This is from all of the floodwaters that rushed into this valley.

And as we zoom into the background right there, you're going to see a bunch of twisted metal, an excavator was right by that metal over there and volunteers you're telling me that there is a vehicle buried in the gravel over there. They don't know if this is a flatbed trailer, an RV or a truck, but they need to get access in there to make sure that there are no remains.

And then, in the water, see that piece of metal, that is another buried vehicle. Same deal. They have divers on hand here on the grounds, but I've just been told the conditions of the water here are not safe for them to enter This is why they are pumping the water out manually so that they can get access to these vehicles and to make sure that no one's left behind here, Boris.

SANCHEZ: And Isabel, you were at the press briefing that we played a clip of earlier today.

[15:05:02]

Officials seemed to struggle to answer some very basic questions about the timeline about when they were made aware of key moments as this flooding was happening. What did you take from that press briefing?

ROSALES: Right. Listen, these are questions that we're getting from the community. It's not just us the press trying to berate county officials here. We're hearing this from people who live here trying to make sense of what officials did, specifically their actions, the discussion that took place in the three to four hours between when the first emergency alert came in saying, hey, something really bad is happening. This is a life-threatening flooding.

And then, by the point that the Guadalupe River started to burst, its banks sent flood into homes. So, we asked that specific question, what were you guys doing at these hours in that time frame and here's how they answered.

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ROSALES: I would like to know, if you could, like what the Specific actions and discussions were that local officials took between 1:14 A.M., that's when the first flood emergency alert came out, and hours later when the river first started flooding, what happened in those hours?

LEITHA: What I can tell you when I was first notified, it was around the four to five area. One of my sergeants was in dispatch when the first calls started to coming in, the actual 911 calls come in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was like four in the morning.

LEITHA: It was between four or five when I got notified, okay? But prior to that, in that three to four area, my understanding is - and we're in the process of trying to put a timeline. You know, that's going to take a little bit of time. As I've told you several times, that is not my priority this time. There's three priorities that's locating the people out there, identifying, notify the next of kin, that is what I'm taking is my job as sheriff here to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROSALES: Yes, so that's what we saw them dodging repeated questions,

trying to get a sense of that timeline. And we just critically heard the Kerr County Sheriff right there said - say that he was not notified until four or five in the morning. So that would have been three to four hours after that first emergency alert. That's a critical piece of new information that we've gotten there.

What this means is that essentially these residents were forced to rely on door knocks from their neighbors, alerting them that there was an emergency occurring or cellphone alerts from the National Weather Service that we've heard from several people that they have not - they never received those alerts. Not to mention the fact that this is a very rural rough terrain where cell phone service is spotty.

So, of course, Boris, we're going to keep pressing for accountability and transparency here because you can both do search and rescue, and of course be focused on life-saving out here. But also, be transparent as to what happened in those hours, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Isabel Rosales, thank you so much for that reporting from Center Point. As I said a moment ago, this area is a popular vacation spot and it was especially busy for the 4th of July. We're actually joined now live by David Fry who survived the floods along with more than 30 members of his family. They were here for the holiday weekend.

David, I'm so glad that you and your family are safe. I want to step back and just ask if you had any awareness that this area was prone to flooding. It's known as flash flood alley. Did you have any? Concern as you were going into this weekend that anything like this could happen?

DAVID FRY, VACATIONING WITH 30 PLUS FAMILY MEMBERS AS FLOOD HIT: Boris, thank you for having me, first of all. We have been monitoring weather conditions and predictions all week leading up to it. A lot of that is there going to be sunshine? Are we going to be able to enjoy the time outside with our family?

So, again, we were expecting four to six inches of rain generally speaking when we get extreme thunderstorms things like that. They pass generally quickly. Nobody anticipated the volume of rain in terms of the predictions. They were roughly a quarter to a third of what we actually received. So, certainly that was a factor here.

I think another thing that's important to note is because of that spotty reception via cell phone, a lot of those emergency alerts that went out were never received. And so, we were aware of the conditions we were monitoring them closely on a personal level. But no, there was no advance warning.

SANCHEZ: So, when did you realize that something was wrong and that you needed to get out of where you were?

FRY: Well, the rain itself started around midnight You know, around 2 A.M. There was heavy electrical activity. The rain was picking up. I was outside of the room that we were staying in just watching the water. [15:10:02]

It has not been uncommon in the past to see it crest its banks very moderately. But, you know, at this point it was coming up rapidly, you know? So, we watched that for a while. The owners of the resort that we were staying at were also monitoring that closely. And we discussed the need to potentially go through and notify the other occupants.

At about 2:45, the water had moved again substantially. It was about 15 feet away from the building. And at that point, we just went into, you know, alert mode, banging on doors, you know, making sure that people were aware and could get up and get out as quickly as possible.

SANCHEZ: And then, what did you do?

FRY: At that point, we moved to higher ground. We moved out to the parking lot that's, you know, approximately 70 meters away from the banks. There's, you know, roughly 20 to 30 feet of elevation change there. As the waters crept up and were doing so rapidly. You know, people were exiting the parking lots, heading to their vehicles, hoping to get to higher ground. Unfortunately, entrance exits were blocked at low water crossings. So, it really limited our options.

SANCHEZ: Yes, I understand that after you were able to help your family to safety, you saw a woman that was stranded. Tell us about that. Do you know how she was able to get out?

FRY: So, yes, once, you know, family and a number of other individuals that were there on site were boosted up to safety. You know, I was about to make my climb as well. At that point, we heard cries coming from behind us. There was a neighbor from across the road with her two dogs who had become stranded in the center of the road, couldn't venture out into the worst of the current.

And at that point, yes, I just - had to go back for her. We were able to get across that fastest part of the current, probably wash down another 50 meters or so. We're able to get to a fence line and claw our way back. Unfortunately, there were a lot of other people there to help hoist her up and get her to safety.

SANCHEZ: Yes, so glad that she made it. So glad that you and your family made it as well. David Fry, thank you so much for sharing your story with us.

FRY: Boris, thank you for having me.

SANCHEZ: There were so many folks that as we've learned, were not as fortunate as Steven and his family. One of them was Dr. Katheryn Eads. She was among the victims found. We're learning from her family that she was a psychologist, a college professor, and had helped children in foster care. Her daughter tells CNN that her parents were camping in an RV and tried to escape on the back of someone else's truck, but it then washed away.

Her father, she says, survived, saying that he tried to hold on to her, but the raging floodwaters were simply too much and they eventually ripped them apart. Stay with CNN. We'll be right back.

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[15:17:43]

DEAN: President Trump held his sixth cabinet meeting of his second term today, discussing a range of topics from the floods in Texas to tariffs. He also weighed in on controversies surrounding Elon Musk and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. CNN's Kristen Holmes is joining us now from the White House.

Kristen, the President is once again announcing new trade deadlines and tariffs for a number of countries. There's a lot of back and forth on this. Where do things stand?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, he said something today that was completely different than what he said yesterday. Now, just a reminder, yesterday he pushed that deadline, signed an executive order for these so-called reciprocal tariffs back to August 1st. They were supposed to take place tomorrow. He sent a series of letters to various countries, including some of our biggest trading partners, Korea, as well as Japan. But then, they said, in them that this wouldn't go into effect until August 1st.

Last night, he was asked about this August 1st. Is this a firm deadline? He waffled, saying that it was kind of firm, but not a hundred percent. Then, when asked about it again today, here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On tariffs again, on August 1st, you've said it is the deadline. What incentives do countries have to negotiate and see if that deadline keeps moving? It's April 2nd now it's August 1st.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We didn't move. No, no. It's always been August 1st. That's when they're paying (ph). A statement was put out today, and I put it out just to make it clear. It wasn't a change. It was August 1st. We don't change very much. You know, every time we put out a statement, they say, he made a change. I didn't make a change. Clarification, maybe. No, August 1st, they pay, and everybody pays. Everybody has to pay, and the incentive is that they have the right to deal in the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So, there, of course, saying it was always August 1st. It was not always August 1st. It was supposed to start tomorrow, July 9th. But the other part of the tariff conversation that was interesting is he said that he was likely going to send a letter to the European Union within the next two days, saying at one point that they've been more difficult to work with than China on tariffs.

DEAN: All right. Kristen Holmes, thank you so much at the White House there.

And President Trump is lashing out at Russian President Vladimir Putin and expressing his frustration over the ongoing war in Ukraine.

[15:20:01]

During today's Cabinet meeting, Trump called Putin out, accusing the Russian leader of peddling B.S. and suggesting Putin has shown no willingness to end the war. Trump even hinted he's considering sanctions against the Kremlin.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're not happy with Putin. I'm not happy with Putin. I can tell you that much right now, because he's killing a lot of people. And a lot of them are his soldiers. His soldiers and their soldiers, mostly. And it's now up to 7,000 a week. And I'm not happy with Putin. We get a lot of (INAUDIBLE) thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you want (INAUDIBLE), Lindsey Graham has a sanctions bill on Russia. Do you want him to move out of that?

TRUMP: I'm looking at it, yes. No, I'm looking. The Senate is passing and passed a very tough sanctions bill. Yes, I'm looking at it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you sign that? It's an optional bill. It's totally at my option. They passed it totally at my option.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: David Sanger is CNN Political and National Security Analyst and the White House and National Security Correspondent for The New York Times.

David, always good to have you. Thanks so much for being here. I want to start first with what we heard President Trump saying about Putin. Obviously, he was very explicit there, but he wouldn't go so far as the sanctions that are still lingering in Congress. Why does he not want to go there at this point?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, first, Jessica, I think just the statement was pretty remarkable, right? I mean, it's just a few months ago that he was equating Zelenskyy and Putin together, blaming Zelenskyy in part for the invasion of his own country. And now he has come to the conclusion that most of his European allies, most of his intelligence advisors ...

DEAN: I think we might've lost David there, unfortunately. We will try to get him back.

In the meantime, search and rescue efforts continue in Texas, where many are still missing, and at least 108 have died following those absolutely devastating floods. How staffing shortages at a local weather forecast office may have hampered the emergency service response to that tragedy, we'll talk more about that next.

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[15:26:39]

SANCHEZ: As days pass from the 4th of July disaster here in the Texas Hill Country, pressure for answers is mounting from local officials, especially in Kerr County, where more than 80 people were killed. The county has yet to provide an official timeline on when and where its emergency manager issued alerts about the flooding. And today, the sheriff decided not to provide critical details on Kerr County's preparedness, saying that the focus remains on rescue and recovery.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: With all due respect, sir, I think that the community here is asking these questions. What happened? When did it happen? Was the emergency manager awake at the time? Did they push the button to issue an emergency alert?

LEITHA: Sir, it's not that easy and you just push a button, okay? There's a lot more to that. And we've told you several times ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) so did it happen here?

LEITHA: I can't tell you at this time, okay?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You can't tell me the emergency manager of the county actually issued an emergency alert.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Let's get some expertise from Craig McCLain. He's a former Acting Chief Scientist at NOAA, which oversees the National Weather Service.

Craig, thank you so much for being with us.

What questions would you pose to local officials?

CRAIG MCCLAIN, FORMER NOAA ACTING CHIEF SCIENTIST: I think the first question is to ask the very ones that the media is asking, what was available by the way of information and by when. But I think, Boris, there are also some very important questions to be asked of NOAA and of the current administration.

The public, the Congress, the media has not been informed by NOAA as to what reductions were taken in the National Weather Service personnel. The union is the only body that's been appointed or explaining just where those reductions have taken place. The agency needs to be accountable and explain what positions have been vacant, what the role was, and what risk is there to the public for this and other types of natural hazards or human-caused hazards to be taking effect. We're owed those answers, and they're not forthcoming.

SANCHEZ: I want to get your thoughts on two things that we've heard. One is from CNN's reporting about a specific position at the Austin- San Antonio Weather Forecast Office of warning coordination meteorologists. That was apparently vacant on July 4th as all of this was happening. Conversely, you've had folks from the National Weather Service say that the forecast offices for Austin-San Antonio and San Angelo had, quote, extra personnel on duty during the catastrophic flooding event.

How do you read this staffing situation? Is it that that one position is so important that it - sort of isn't enough for there to be additional staff, that they need that one position in order to orchestrate a more thorough advance warning of a potential disaster looming?

MCCLAIN: Well, the warning coordination meteorologist of any weather service station is responsible for sustaining the contact with communities. Whether that job was covered or not at the time of these warnings is something that I know you've heard the term close the last mile or the last mile of delivery of the weather service forecast.

[15:30:02]

And being able to get to the community, the emergency managers, the citizens, the mayors, et cetera, the people who need to know how to organize.