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Democratic Progressives Rising?; Low Crowd Size Expected at Trump July 4 Rally?; Two People Climb to Top of Empire State Building. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired July 01, 2026 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:00]

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And so, at this point, you have got a lot of questions, how in the world two people were able to get up there.

As you know, they give tours every single day on a daily basis, up to the observation deck, which is up on the 86th floor. That observation deck actually wraps -- it's open air. It wraps around the entire building.

And so perhaps one can imagine that they were able to sort of fold themselves in with the rest of the people there going for a tour, and then got up to the observation deck on the 86th floor, and then made their ascent to the top of the antenna.

At this point, it appears from the ground we don't see the flag up there anymore. We can no longer see the two individuals like we could in the beginning, but still a lot of questions as to exactly what they were doing up there.

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Jason, thank you so much.

Thank you to everybody else.

Do not go away. INSIDE POLITICS is over, but "CNN NEWS CENTRAL" is going to pick it up right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: We begin this afternoon with breaking news, a shocking sight in the skies over Manhattan. For roughly the last hour, two people have been standing on top of the Empire State Building holding a banner reading -- quote -- "When the power of love beats the love of power, the world knows peace."

We have just learned that two members of the Emergency Service Unit are now climbing up the tower to try to reach them.

ERICA HILL, CNN HOST: They're climbing up.

So these are shots from earlier, when they were atop there with the banner. They then packed up that banner, started climbing down, and then, at one point stopping on one of the platforms, where it appeared that we all witnessed a proposal here, dropping to one knee.

They then kissed and embraced. Again, keep in mind just how far this is above the skies of New York City.

CNN's John Miller joining us right now.

John, I know you're in touch with all of your sources across the city, your law enforcement sources. As Boris mentioned, there are two members of the Emergency Service Unit now making their way up that tower. Have you learned any more about who they are or how they managed to get there, as we look at these live pictures?

JOHN MILLER, CNN CHIEF LAW ENFORCEMENT AND INTELLIGENCE ANALYST: Well, this call came into 911 at 12:00 noon and 48 seconds, so almost a minute after 12:00 noon. So this has been going on for an hour.

Units from the Midtown South Precinct responded and started climbing their way up towards the observation deck and beyond. When they got to the 104th floor, they reported that the locks there had been broken, so that it appears that may be part of this incident.

But then you saw these two people literally at the tippy top, the very top, apparently, from what we can see, without harnesses or protective equipment, basically freestyling with the "When the power of love overcomes the love of power, the world will know peace" banner, and then that proposal.

Who they are, what their message is beyond what's the banner, what's on the banner, whether this was to surround a marriage proposal, the message of love is impressive.

But the message that they're going to get in a few minutes, because the officers from the Emergency Service Unit are making their way up the tower to meet these two on the way down, they're going to probably face charges of reckless endangerment for the hazard they caused, criminal trespass for being in the area, and not for the purposes that area is designated, burglary, if in fact those locks were broken by them.

So whatever the message is, it's going to be a mixed message by this afternoon.

SANCHEZ: No doubt.

And WABC is now reporting that the two are in custody. We're working to get more information on their status, but that is what WABC is reporting, that these two who pulled off this stunt are now in custody.

Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe is with us as well.

Andrew, obviously, an unusual situation. I use the word stunt because they were obviously prepared with the unfurling of that flag, what appeared to be a selfie stick that was hooked up while they were doing this proposal.

HILL: Yes, on that platform.

SANCHEZ: Yes, you see it on the right there hanging off the platform.

I mean, this is an odd situation for law enforcement to be approaching, no doubt probably a frustrating one.

ANDREW MCCABE, CNN SENIOR LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Absolutely, Boris.

I mean, an enormous amount of time and effort is spent trying to protect these spaces, trying to keep people out of them who don't belong there, trying to protect the general public from others who might stray into these spaces, certainly at these heights, and put everybody at risk.

And the other thing here is the -- both the city, and in terms of the police department and, of course, the building owners really had -- they were in a tough spot here. They have to respond to this very directly.

[13:05:10]

They are going to have to do whatever they can to see that these people are prosecuted for any appropriate charges, because they cannot take the chance that others will see this and decide to also try it. These kind of daredevils who film themselves at really very dangerous heights, oftentimes straying or trespassing into places where they're not supposed to be doing this sort of stuff, there's a whole groundswell of that.

There's a whole community around that, of course, on the Internet and social media and stuff. So the last thing the people who are responsible for the Empire State Building want is to turn this place into a target for that sort of activity, because, ultimately, it will end in some sort of tragedy.

The danger here, the recklessness is obvious and can't be overstated.

HILL: It absolutely is.

And taking that into account too -- John, I want to bring you back at this point. In terms of for New York City, and you talked about who's responding here, but the concerns that there would be when you have two people here seemingly without any safety equipment, climbing this high up, I mean, the Empire State Building alone is, I believe, 102 stories, on a hot, humid day in New York City, that metal is going to be slippery.

The concerns about there being a fall or even something that they have on their person falling, the damage that could do to the surrounding area. What are those preparations like on the ground, John?

MILLER: Well, this was a massive police response, because, initially, they didn't know what they were walking into.

But this appears to be a messaging-based event. But, as you can see, as they're up there without harnesses, in the later footage, when you see the Emergency Service Unit police officers climbing up to meet them, they have the harness belt on. They have got the clips where they clip in and clip off as they climb up.

I have trained with them. I have climbed to the top of multiple New York City bridges with them. It's all a safety-first operation. That is not -- that is not what you were seeing here. This is daredevil.

So, what does this all mean in the context of history? The image we think when it's climbing to the top of the antenna of the Empire State Building, of course, is the iconic King Kong.

But what we have seen is, from Philippe Petit, the French acrobat who strung a line between the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in 1974 and then crossed it in a high-wire act that captivated the city, to urban explorers who simply do this kind of thing for thrills, whether it was the individual who tried to climb Trump Tower using rubber suction cups, or the individuals who climbed to the tower of the new World Trade Center post-9/11 and jumped off with parachutes.

They were also tracked down after an extensive investigation and arrested. There has been a history of, how high can we go, what kind of spectacle can we create, and can we get away with it?

This case here, slightly different. I mean, clearly there was no intention to get away with it. It was to create this spectacle. And it was to draw the police response and the media attention, more important, and to send some kind of message.

We don't know whether that message was just to each other, a message of love, or to the world, but they cost the city hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment and response, the Empire State Building as well. And there's going to be a consequence at the end of this. It'll be curious to see what it was all about.

SANCHEZ: Yes, no doubt.

And, Andy, I imagine that prosecutors are going to take into account the idea that these folks sending a message that is going to be seen will factor into any prosecution, especially if they're trying to send a message to other people out there that may see this and get ideas.

MCCABE: Yes, no question.

I mean, that's the way that we send a message about violations of law, right? We prosecute people. We do it very publicly in the court of law, and prosecutors will have the authority to seek as tough a sentence as the law will provide.

And that could make this romantic gesture particularly painful in the long run. I should also say that I -- you have to imagine that, as this began to unfold some time ago this morning, when authorities first saw two black-clad people climbing to this precipitous point and in the process of unfurling what at the moment looked like a black flag, before you could tell what the what the message was on it, I'm sure that people -- responders were in very high alert.

[13:10:14]

Because a lot of the look of -- that those first moments brings -- certainly brings back echoes of some particular terrorist organizations like ISIS, who are very obviously well known as having fought and conducted their terror activities under the black flag.

So, yes, this is -- it may seem romantic or silly to some people, but this is very serious, and the toll that it takes on our system, first responders, law enforcement, security folks, building security people, engineers, you really -- you can't minimize that.

This is -- it's a pretty extreme thing to put all those people and systems through. And you have to imagine that prosecutors are going to seek convictions for this serious activity.

HILL: Yes, absolutely.

Andy, John, appreciate it. Thank you both.

We're going to continue to follow the developments of this story for you throughout the afternoon. But, again, as we have learned from our affiliate WABC, the two are now in custody, making their way down there with members of New York's -- the NYPD's Emergency Services Unit.

Still ahead here: a Democratic socialist winning another primary. Can they win in a general election? The takeaways from last night's races.

Plus, Pete Buttigieg says he was separated from his twins after an anonymous report alleging he posed a danger to his children. Why he believes this was politically motivated.

And a bit later, we're live outside Madison Square Garden, where all signs point to MSG being the site of Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding.

That and much more ahead on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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[13:16:22]

SANCHEZ: Happening now: President Trump is in North Dakota to celebrate America 250 and the grand opening of Theodore Roosevelt's presidential library.

Plenty of pomp and circumstances on deck in the coming hours, but, back at the White House, CNN is learning that concerns are mounting over crowd size at Trump's big Fourth of July bash this weekend.

CNN's Kristen Holmes is live at the White House with this new reporting.

So, Kristen, what are you learning?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: You know, the job of the White House, the advisers, the support staff to President Trump is to make the president look good, to support him.

And we know President Trump has said that this speech he's giving on the Mall is going to be his biggest event yet. But given what we're seeing just across the board, there are concerns that there are going to be sparse crowds.

And part of the reason is, one, we are hearing that President Trump isn't going to speak until 9:45 or 10:00 at night. However, you're going to have to have people coming in around 1:00 p.m. The Mall is completely open. It's supposed to be 102 to 103 degrees, and they aren't allowed to take anything in.

That means no coolers, no fans, anything of the sort. Then they would have to be sitting there on the Mall for roughly nine hours just before they would hear President Trump speak and then, of course, before they would get to that fireworks display, which there's been some dispute as to what time the fireworks are actually happening, 11:00 or 10:30.

And this also comes after President Trump was angry when he saw a photo, an aerial photo of his speech this week or last week on Wednesday when he gave his address to kind of launch the state fair in D.C., and there showed an empty field in one of those photos.

So he was upset about the crowd size already. And his team obviously doesn't want a repeat of that on July 4.

SANCHEZ: The White House today is also having to respond to a report that shows just how much money the president has made since returning to office?

HOLMES: It's so much money. I mean, these are the financial disclosures.

And just alone, he has made more than a billion dollars in cryptocurrency ventures. So I do want to take a look at what's in these financial disclosures just to give kind of an overview of some of the money that we saw coming in. It shows you this kind of growing fortune he has.

It's $635 million in celebration coins deals, which are these meme coins, $526 million in crypto tokens, then $77 million from his resort in Mar-a-Lago, and $7.4 million in royalties for Trump Watches.

I encourage everyone to go read Steve Contorno's piece that he did a few months ago on these watches. And less than a million dollars on gifts, Trump Bibles, et cetera, so a lot of money coming in here.

Now, President Trump was asked about this on his way out of town, kind of shrugged it off. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And I purposely -- I never speak to any of the people that run the money, but they're at big institutions, and they invest in whatever they invest in. QUESTION: But to critics who say you're profiting off the presidency?

TRUMP: Well, you know why I'm profiting? Because the stock market's going up. Everybody's profiting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: Now, the one thing to note there is, while we have seen some bounce-back in the markets, we have seen some oil prices go down -- that's really what the president is referring to there -- when it comes to the specifics of the value of these Trump coins and some of his crypto, I want to show you one thing here, which is that it is 98 percent down from its all-time high, meaning that, yes, President Trump profited off of it, and maybe someone else did right when it launched.

But, since then, it has gone down. He made millions of it. Others who invested in it likely did not.

SANCHEZ: Not so much, yes.

Kristen Holmes at the White House, thank you -- Erica.

[13:20:00]

HILL: Democratic socialists striking a chord of voters in Colorado and dealing yet another blow to the political establishment.

CNN projects Melat Kiros will unseat 15-term Democratic Congresswoman Diana DeGette in Colorado's First District. Kiros is the third Democratic socialist to knock out an incumbent Democrat in recent days, and she says her victory sends a clear message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELAT KIROS (D), COLORADO CONGRESSIONAL CANDIDATE: We believe that fundamental change can will happen if we fight for it.

(CHEERING)

KIROS: If we organize and show no fear in standing up for what's right. That is the message that Denver has sent to both parties, to Donald Trump, and to the entire country.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HILL: Also in Colorado, the Democratic primary for governor saw state Attorney General Phil Weiser defeat Senator Michael Bennet. Weiser has recently rebuked his own party for granting clemency to an election denier in the state.

Here to discuss, the host of "The Chuck ToddCast," Chuck Todd.

Chuck, good to see you. When we look at the way things are shifting here, some people are

writing off New York City and Democratic socialists as a very New York City event. Democrats have long billed themselves as this big tent party, and sometimes, Chuck, to their detriment, because they have a hard time picking a lane.

These younger anti-establishment candidates at this point, are they for forcing the party into a lane? It's clearly not just New York City.

CHUCK TODD, FORMER MODERATOR, "MEET THE PRESS": So I don't know if the answer is that yet, because I think the bigger takeaway I have from Colorado is because, if I -- if you look at what happened in the First District and also see it through the prism of the two statewide races -- you highlighted the governor's race, but there was a senator on the ballot as well, not just Michael Bennet, but the other state senator is -- he's in cycle.

He got less than 60 percent against somebody he outspent 9-1. And there was the exact same argument that Kiros made against DeGette, that Weiser made against Bennet, and that Julie Gonzales, who was the candidate against John Hickenlooper, made, which was, you guys don't fight hard enough against Trump.

And, in fact, the direct hits on Bennet and Hickenlooper that appeared to be the most effective were, you even confirmed some of his Cabinet members. How is it that you're not standing up and fighting?

And so, look, I think the New York City races were a bit more, I think, ideologically driven. It is -- I mean, Mamdani made it so, right? He leaned into it. It was as much about him and his movement there. This, yes, you have a DSA candidate finding success in the most liberal part of the state, in Denver, but I think the real lesson is, if you're not seen as a real fighter against Trump, the Democrats are going to throw you out and go find somebody else.

And I think that is the animating force right now. That doesn't mean that there isn't some openness to socialism and we're not seeing all that, but I really think the prism of Colorado was about fighting, and that the Democrats there were considered not tough enough.

HILL: So if that is -- I don't know if we're also at a point where that would be a broader party message, but if in fact it is, right, you're not fighting hard enough, the establishment, the people who have been here for a while are not doing the job that we need them to do, is that seen as a winning message across the spectrum of the party?

TODD: Well, I think that's going to be the challenge in a general election.

Like, you see it in a primary. Hey, you weren't there. You're not standing up, right? And, in fact, it is -- so I understand how that was effective. The question is, you have a party base that is exhausted, that is tired of losing to Trump, right? This is the impact of losing to him a second time. You can write off once as a fluke. A second time, and you have

responsibility for this. You were there, Michael Bennet, right? You were there, Diana DeGette. And I think that's going to be, what is the general election message that brings in -- it's easy to fire up resistance Democrats, anti-Trump Democrats to get fired up and raging and show up to the polls.

But the difference in a swing election, OK, whether it's we're talking Michigan Senate, Iowa Senate, Ohio, Maine, you name it, is that last slice of voters? What do they want? Are they -- do they want more fighting with Trump? Do they want just more accountability?

I think the corruption message, you guys, I think this -- the amount of money he's making off the presidency potentially can resonate, especially in this era of affordability. That's my curiosity is, what is the general election message? This is an easy message to fire up a base on. How do you get over that voter that maybe he was open to voting for Trump and maybe did in '24 and would like to not vote for him again?

Maybe they don't like socialism. What else are you going to offer them?

[13:25:02]

HILL: Be interesting to see if, to your point, as Kristen was just speaking to, the report about the billions, right, that President Trump has made, whether that will fire people up enough.

It's also interesting, the RNC announcing that they're doing a midterm convention in September in Dallas. Do you see this as an attempt to boost enthusiasm or to in some ways put Trump on the ballot? And, if so, which party does that benefit?

TODD: Oh, I think the Democrats will help pay for this convention.

(LAUGHTER)

TODD: I think they would love to see this race as nationalized as possible.

Midterm elections, the more nationalized they are, the worse that is for the incumbent party. History will show that. Recent history shows that. So, doing this the way that Trump wants to do it, making it about him, making it about you're either with Trump or you're against Trump, that's the frame, frankly, Democrats would love to go into the general election with.

So, now I understand why there are some that argue inside the Republican Party, knowing that Trump is unpopular with the middle that says this is a turnout election. We're not trying to persuade anybody. We have got to find ways to fire up the MAGA base, and the MAGA base has never shown up when Donald Trump hasn't been on the ballot.

So this is an attempt to do that. I'm skeptical this is going to work, especially at a time when he's more unpopular now than he has been at any moment of his sort of his -- of his stranglehold on the Republican Party.

So I just think this is -- again, Democrats will help pay for this convention if they promise to nationalize this message and make it all about Trump. So I think it's highly risky. I understand the rationale strategically. The only shot in some of these -- these are red states that Democrats have to win to win the Senate, Texas, Iowa, Ohio, Alaska, Nebraska.

So the Republican argument is, if they just get their own voters out, they can hold those seats. I just think it's highly risky. I do. And I think it only helps team blue more than they think it will help team red.

HILL: All right, Chuck, appreciate it, as always. Thank you.

TODD: Thanks, Erica. You got it.

HILL: A major city, we're learning, is now changing its Fourth of July and World Cup plans because of the dangerous heat warnings. We will take a closer look about what you need to know about this heat wave impacting millions across the country.

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