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More than 160 Dead, 970 Plus Injured in Venezuela Earthquakes; Weapons, Drugs and Escape Tools Dropped at Federal Prisons Via Drone; President Trump Seems to Think the Housing Bill is Not Important. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired June 25, 2026 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this hour, the death toll jumping this morning after massive back-to-back earthquakes in Venezuela. Rescue operations are underway as we speak. Rescue is trying to reach people that they say are still trapped in the rubble.

We're also standing by for new data on the state of the U.S. economy, specifically a new look at inflation. Futures already reacting ahead of the opening bell.

And meth, phones, weapons, escape tools, all delivered by drone to American prisons. What DOJ calls one of the most sophisticated and sprawling criminal enterprises it's ever charged.

I'm Kate Bolduan with John Berman and Sara Sidner. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Getting right back into our breaking news. New images of the devastation in Venezuela after earthquakes rocked the country. A massive rescue operation now underway and the death toll rapidly rising.

Now, more than 160 people have been killed and nearly a thousand people are injured, the acting president says. And just in, new video from the moment the quake struck. Oh, terrifying.

A building west of Caracas, you see there crumbling in a matter of minutes. The epicenters are located along Venezuela's northern coastal region. First, a seven point two magnitude quake hit, then a seven point five hit struck just 40 seconds apart.

The second one, the strongest to hit the country in more than a century. The scale of destruction is staggering. Buildings reduced to rubble.

An unknown number of people are right now trapped underneath all of that. And there are rescue operations underway. But we are hearing from some of the survivors this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MARTHA ANEZ, EARTHQUAKE SURVIVOR (through translator): I leaned out onto the balcony screaming, we're trapped, we need help, please, someone come. We didn't realize there were two aftershocks back to back. We thought it had lasted a minute, maybe a minute and a half, but it felt endless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Important infrastructure was not spared. Venezuela's main airport also suffering major damage. You can see it unfolding there.

Video showing a part of the roof collapsing on people as they're fleeing to safety. CNN's Stefano Pozzebon is tracking all of this from Bogota, Colombia, where you felt the quake. Give us some sense of just how devastating this has been and how big this is. The difference between, for example, the first quake and then the follow up, the 7.2 to the 7.5.

STEFANO POZZEBON, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes, it's really been almost a storm of shakes, Sara, hitting Venezuela starting at 6 p.m. local time yesterday afternoon. Authorities, for example, saying that after the first two major quakes, one, the first one at 7.2, the second at 7.5 magnitude on the Richter scale. Well, after that, we've heard, we felt and people in Caracas have been feeling quakes and shakes through the night with up to 30 aftershocks reported by the authorities.

One news that we learned today out of Caracas in the last hour or so is that we've spoken with representatives from Chevron, the major U.S. oil company that has begun operating in Venezuela again after years out in the cold following Maduro's removal back in January. They told us that all of their employees are both foreigners, but mostly Venezuelans have been accounted for. Some limited positive news out of the Venezuelan oil industry.

This is important because the epicenter of these two quakes, the area of Moron, halfway between Caracas and Maracaibo, some 200 miles west of the Venezuelan capital, is where some of the largest and most crucial refineries of Venezuela are located. It's not a densely populated area, but it is an area that is crucial for the developing and the reconstruction of the country because that is where the oil would go out. And we know how much of the Venezuelan economy depends on the oil.

So we're keeping a close eye on the oil industry in Venezuela. And the good news out of Chevron is that all of their employees are being accounted for. So that is something that we're welcoming at this hour.

[08:05:00]

At the same time, I still want to point out that most of the people, lots of the people that we spoke with in Caracas, have decided to sleep and have spent the night out onto the streets, maybe getting together in squares or in cars, trying to stay out of the buildings because of these successive aftershocks. One person, for example, was speaking to our cameras late last night as she was prepared, as they were preparing to spend the night rough onto the streets. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (through translator): What I did was throw myself on the floor to call on God. The walls cracked. The kitchen collapsed.

The living room is about to fall. One more movement and it will come down. Here I'm going to stay.

Here in the street, I have nothing else. At that moment, I only ran out with my rosary, my phone, which I had on me, and my clothes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

POZZEBON: With almost 200 dead already reported, this is already proven to be one of the deadliest catastrophes hit in Venezuela this century. Unfortunately, the death toll seems to be destined to keep growing and growing in the coming hours -- Sara.

SIDNER: It's truly terrible. We're looking at live pictures just there as you're watching what appears to be a rescue effort going on right now. As you said, many people still trapped and rescuers trying to get to them.

Stefano Pozzebon, thank you so much for your reporting there for us -- John.

BERMAN: It seem it appears to be just trying to lift the entire level of that flooring up there.

With us now, Noris Soto, a journalist and international correspondent on the ground in Caracas at this moment. Noris, if you can hear me, the connection is hard to get.

We're lucky to have you. I'm going to keep you on as long as I can. Can you tell me what you are seeing this morning?

NORIS SOTO, JOURNALIST AND INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Well, this morning I was able to go out on the street. What we've seen is a lot of empty streets and nobody going out to work. Many businesses are closed.

But if you look at the zone where the impact was greater or bigger in Chacao, you can see people camping outside on the squares, on the public squares, on the streets, because they were either afraid of returning home because of the damages of the structures or they completely lost their homes. So what you can see is a shocking situation for Venezuela. We were not prepared for something like this to happen.

BERMAN: Again, and we're looking at pictures right now from Caracas of a building that's just been flattened there and a machine trying to lift what looks like an entire story, a floor, off of something underneath. We don't know if they're searching for people or not. Any communications -- and this is Caracas we're seeing right now, and Caracas is where you are, any communication at all?

Are you hearing anything from La Guaria, which appears to be much closer to the epicenter and perhaps even harder hit?

SOTO: What I've been hearing is from people, from people, friends of mine, even abroad, we've had families in La Guaria and we're reaching out asking for help. They're asking for the journalist and for anybody really who has a social media account but looking for people because the connection and then the internet in La Guaria is completely severed. People are not able to communicate.

So we, at this point, we don't know exactly how many people died, how many structures have been completely collapsed. And, you know, what we know from little photos and videos circulating over social media is that the situation is ten times worse than in Caracas.

BERMAN: Much, much worse in La Guaria than it is in Caracas. Only getting scant information back from there, although we have seen a few pictures with so many buildings damaged or destroyed. You, of course, were in Caracas when these dual quakes hit.

Can you describe what it felt like?

SOTO: Well, this is something that I've never -- I think I've never felt something like this in my entire life. I felt that the ground was roaring, you know. It was a huge roar and then I started seeing my feet falling to the floor, a lot of broken glass.

And you could actually hear how these buildings were starting to crack at the junctures, you know. It was really traumatic. It was really shocking.

This is something beyond words, beyond description. It's something that I wish to nobody.

BERMAN: You could hear the buildings starting to crack. And again, we see these live pictures right now from Caracas of a building that did more than crack. It completely crumbled and there appeared to be some rescue efforts going on underway there.

Noris Soto, we're glad you are doing OK. Please don't go far.

[08:10:00]

We appreciate you keeping us informed as to what you are seeing there. Information is hard to come by. Thank you so much for your efforts -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Yes, it's really lucky that we could get that out of there. We'll try to stay connected stay connected with her and continue to get more reporting coming out as those rescue operations are very much still underway in Venezuela.

We're also tracking this right now. Drugs, cell phones, escape tools. There are new details on the arrests that were just announced linked to an alleged drone delivery crime ring in American prisons. Much more to come. And a big bipartisan push to make housing more affordable is now in seemingly permanent limbo. The president suggesting it's not needed now after calling it the most comprehensive and consequential in the history of our country. So what now?

And a plane makes an emergency landing in the Alaskan wilderness. You got to see this incredible video from inside the plane in those scary moments. We'll be right back.

[08:15:00]

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BOLDUAN: Drugs, weapons, cell phones, even escape tools. The Justice Department says that this -- and put it on display -- is an example of one of the drones used in what the Justice Department calls a sophisticated crime network aimed at smuggling dangerous contraband into American prisons. The Justice Department just announced a wave of arrests associated with this.

Authorities say that the operation was run out of a former daycare in Macon, Georgia. CNN's Ryan Young is tracking this one for us. He's joining us right now.

Ryan, what are you learning about this?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a former daycare. Who would have thought that part? This is not like Shawshank Redemption, the low tech ways that we've seen in movies where people try to get things in.

These drones are sophisticated. Some of them can carry up to 40 pounds and they fly mostly at night. The FBI says they've been tracking this operation for quite some time.

It's mostly southern states that have been involved in this. And of course, we've been tracking this for months as well, even with some of our state partners watching what's been going on. But these drops, whether they're cell phones, whether it's been food, they've all been coming through.

And in fact, they've been able to track more than 35 different incursions into some of these prisons, more than 10 of them. So you've got to think about that in terms of the people they were able to arrest. But being run out of a former daycare, in fact, if you listen to the special agent in charge, they said this was a sophisticated operation that took some time to crack.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARLO GRAHAM, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE, FBI ATLANTA: Some state and federal prison drone smuggling contraband have been so frequent that the facility looked like a small airport in the evening. We are talking about supplies of drugs, cell phones, cigarettes, but even blades that could be used as escape tools and weapons. These items are going into the hands of murderers, violent gang members, con men, and others, enabling them to commit additional crimes from behind bars.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Yes, Kate, I don't think we can underestimate the power of the cell phone. I mean, you see a lot of people walking the streets that can't take their eyes off their phone. It's no different when people are in prison.

They want the cell phones to be able to communicate outside. And of course, a lot of times they believe, federal authorities, that people are still trying to commit crimes using these cell phones while they're still in jail or in prison. So that's a big deal, one of the reasons why they wanted to get this done.

In fact, the sophistication level in terms of some of these drops, they use trash bags. Sometimes they disguise what's being dropped in fake cats, stuffed cats, and they stuff it with drugs and they drop them in. And some of this stuff does get through, Kate.

So you've got to understand this is a tremendous danger for people who are on the prison lots because of what could be dropped in with these drugs.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. Ryan, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Pretty wild -- Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thank you, Kate.

We are standing by for a brand new inflation report this morning. We will bring you those numbers as soon as they come in.

Also, could wedding bells soon be ringing for Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce? What we're learning about where they might potentially be doing it. There are some clues as to where this may take place and when. Those stories and more ahead.

[08:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: All right, happening now, we're waiting to see what happens with the bipartisan housing bill passed by both chambers of Congress that the president abruptly decided not to sign yesterday. And he called it minor legislation. It's designed to get to affordability, making housing more available.

CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten is with us this morning. So affordability, the president seems to think the housing bill is not important. Has the affordability issue just gone away?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: You know, if I was a Republican member of Congress and I'm listening to President Trump, the only words that enter my mind are, oh, God. Oh, God, no. What are you doing?

And that is because the issue has not gone away at all. Google searches for affordability. Look at this.

Up 500 percent this week versus the pre-2026 average. In fact, Johnny B., they reached, you have it going across the top of your screen, reaching all time. Well, I couldn't get the pen.

There we go. All time high this week. So, no, the issue of affordability isn't going away.

There's a reason why Republicans wanted this legislation not just passed but signed into law by the president of the United States, because this, this is the issue, of course, that got Donald Trump elected in the first place. And they want to be able to give their voters something, their members of Congress something so that the voters perhaps, you know, don't vote them out of office come November.

BERMAN: A brilliant, all time high for searches this week.

ENTEN: An all time high this week, affordability.

BERMAN: On the week that he decided not to sign the housing bill.

ENTEN: Great politics.

BERMAN: He ran on affordability, right? In terms of fulfilling those election promises. How's the president doing?

ENTEN: OK, so you see affordability up 500 percent in terms of people searching along Google, an all time high. This comes back to the issue we've spoken about over and over and over again.

President Trump got elected to bring down inflation, got elected to fix the economy in the voters' minds. And do they think he's keeping his campaign promises? No, no, no, no.

Oh God, no. Trump kept his 2024 campaign promises. You know, you go back to April of 2025 among voters, the bare majority, but a majority nonetheless, 52 percent said yes.

47 percent said no. That 52 percent, down under the ground now. Now it's 40 percent.

While that percentage who said no, it's up. Now it's the clear majority. 55 percent say that Trump is not keeping his campaign promises.

[08:25:00]

So when he is off yesterday, not signing that bill to help bring down -- make housing more affordable, instead talking about the SAVE Act, this is what they're talking about. President Trump taking his eyes off the ball and not keeping his 2024 campaign promises.

BERMAN: Which party do people trust more to deal with these issues?

ENTEN: Yes, so, OK, this is the reason why Republicans in Congress simply put, wanted this legislation not just put, not just passed, but signed into law. Because the buck is going to stop with them come the 2026 midterm elections. Because President Trump is not on the ballot.

Trusted more on the cost of living. You go back to January of the beginning of this year, it was the GOP by point. Look at this.

This is the trend that makes Republicans in Congress shake in their boots. Because it is one thing if President Trump has low approval ratings on inflation. The question, of course, is will it funnel its way down ballot?

Information like this, data like this says it absolutely will. And now Democrats lead on the issue. They got President Trump reelected in the first place, simply put, because they don't think the President of the United States is keeping his campaign promises.

And they'll absolutely take it out on Republicans this fall.

BERMAN: A notable political environment for all the actions taken this week, Harry Enten, and thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you, my friend.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: We are staying close to the breaking news after the devastating earthquakes in Venezuela. Rescue operations are very much underway happening right now. Searching through rubble for survivors. The death toll is also jumping in a big way.

And a hiker is pulled to safety after falling more than 100 feet down a mountain. Be right back.

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