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New Video And Witnesses: McConnell Loaded Into Ambulance On Stretcher; U.S. Pauses Iran Strikes After Tit-For-Tat Attacks Threaten Truce; France Into Third Straight Semi After Beating Morocco 2-0. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired July 10, 2026 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: A spokesperson first announced that the former Senate majority leader was hospitalized on June 14 but since then has offered -- his office -- basically no update on his condition whatsoever, which has sparked a wave of -- well, conspiracy theories for one, and also just a wave of concern about the senior senator who is in his 80s.

Joining us right now is emergency physician and dean of the Yale School of Public Health, Dr. Megan Ranney. It's great to see you, Dr. Ranney.

Clearly, McConnell -- Mitch McConnell is not your patient. So having said that, the neighbor sees that he's taken out on a stretcher. There is EMS audio of emergency responders being called to the home for an unconscious person, for cardiac arrest. Someone is heard saying "CPR in progress."

How serious is this case if this comes in to you -- in to your hospital?

DR. MEGAN RANNEY, EMERGENCY PHYSICIAN, DEAN, YALE SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH (via Webex by Cisco): You know, it's difficult to reconcile the video that you've just shown with the story that we'd heard earlier about there being CPR in progress.

So let's start from the beginning. You get a call to EMS about someone being unconscious. We send an ambulance crew out to assess. The causes of unconsciousness are a myriad ranging from seizures, which I and others have speculated that Senator McConnell may be having -- at least off of those episodes where he freezes on camera. It could be that. It could be that he fell and hit his head. It could be a cardiac arrest with your heart stopping.

So you get the call. The ambulance -- EMS specialists go. When they arrive at the house, they assess the patient. They say do they have a pulse? Are they breathing? Are they talking? That's the point it sounds like where someone reported that CPR was in progress. Now, that CPR could have been initiated by the ambulance folks -- by the paramedics or medics, or it could have been initiated by someone in the house. And for viewers, knowing CPR is great but just because you initiate CPR as untrained professional doesn't mean someone had a heart attack.

OK, that's as much as we've known up until now is that there was CPR in progress and the ambulance did respond.

Now you have this video. The thing that struck me about the video Kate is that nobody seems to be in a rush.

BOLDUAN: Right.

RANNEY: If there really had been CPR in progress, if Senator McConnell had truly been in a cardiac arrest, you would expect that they would be rushing; not taking their time loading the patient into the ambulance.

So that's the big additional piece of information that I think we got today. Beyond that it is largely speculative --

BOLDUAN: Yeah.

RANNEY: -- and I think we're all wishing Senator McConnell the best.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely.

And as you're kind of noting, you know, Senator McConnell obviously has been in public life for decades and he has had a lot of health issues in the past. We know that he had polio as a child. He's been hospitalized for falling in recent years. He has had those episodes of freezing up in public that you're noting. He spent a week in the hospital this year. His office said it was for flu-like symptoms. He's 84 years old.

If you have a patient with a profile like this what questions and concerns do you have at this point?

RANNEY: Well, to me, one of the biggest questions is around the fact that he's been in the hospital for three weeks. For an average person -- for you, for me, for viewers or their parents, a three-week stay in the hospital means that you're pretty seriously ill. We try to get folks out of the hospital pretty quickly these days.

Now, that may be a little bit different for Senator McConnell given that he is a VIP, but it makes me concerned that did have some time in critical care or has some elements of his stay that are requiring continued hospitalization rather than home care.

And then on top of it I would want to, you know, make sure that all of his systems are working as best as they can -- his mind, his heart, his lungs. As you noted, he did have polio as a child. It's one of the reasons why he's been such an active advocate appropriately for childhood vaccination. But that can have long-term effects as well.

And then the biggest thing before I send him home is I want to make sure he's stable, he's not at risk of falling or having another event, and that he's properly cared for. And I would imagine that the folks in the hospital are doing that right now. BOLDUAN: Yeah. And with just over the past month of just these extended absences from work from elected public officials with a lack of transparency around it, it does -- has created these mysteries that a lot of people in the public area asking.

It's very good to see you, Megan. And as we would all say, we do wish Senator McConnell is doing well and on the -- on the mend. Thank you -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, with us now, Leigh Ann Caldwell, chief Washington correspondent for Puck, and Alex Gangitano, White House reporter for Politico. Thanks, both of you, for being with us.

Leigh Ann, look, as journalists we obviously want transparency. We would like to know what is going on with our public figures, and I think voters deserve that transparency. What's a little bit nuanced about this story is how angry some people appear to be online over it, and some of that anger and conspiracy is coming from the right and I'm curious why that is.

[07:35:10]

LEIGH ANN CALDWELL, CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, PUCK (via Webex by Cisco): Well, the right has broken up with Senate -- Senator Mitch McConnell years ago. He is no longer an ally of Donald Trump. And the right has also tying everything that happens in Washington to this Save Act -- the voter I.D., birthright citizen -- or citizenship bill that the president is obsessed with passing.

But the reality is that McConnell's office's silence about this is really feeding into these conspiracies. McConnell's office has historically been very -- often given little information about anything. And Senator McConnell himself is very comfortable in the silence and very comfortable with people saying anything they want about him. He has built a career on taking all the bows and arrows for his members, and it is one thing that does not bother him.

But in this day and age when you have such an active online conspiracy movement, this is not serving anyone well and especially now that the governor of Kentucky has now sent a letter asking for more information, and no one is receiving it. He is still representing millions of constituents in Kentucky who have no idea what the status of his health is and if he will actually be coming back to the Senate, John.

BERMAN: Thank you for laying it out like that. I think I understand it better now because I was trying to figure out where the scandal insofar as it was is here. Because look, Alex, the Senate is not exactly a bastion of youth. It hasn't been. I mean, a lot of people look at it as the senior center and there are people of varying degrees of health and mental capacity that have been there for hundreds of years.

That said, with Mitch McConnell, with everything we've seen in politics the last couple of years, are we finally in the age of age where age does matter more? How much are we going to see age maybe play into these midterms?

ALEX GANGITANO, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, POLITICO (via Webex by Cisco): Yeah. I think we were having this exact discussion, you know, when President Biden, during this time two years ago and it was will he drop out? Should he drop out? And how much we as voters -- constituents could take about age. Can, you know, judge based on how people are acting. Based on their age. And it did feel like kind of a reckoning point.

And here we are again having the same conversation of what kind of transparency does he owe to voters and what kind of questions is it comfortable asking when there is a situation like this and you're not getting those kinds of answers.

I thought it was interesting. Leigh Ann mentioned that the governor of Kentucky has said, you know, I need an update on his health. We also heard from senators. Leader John Thune and John Barrasso saying we have talked to him. So we're pulling any kind of scraps. These leaders coming out and saying we had a conversation with him, I think they were trying to appease some of the public scrutiny around this.

BERMAN: Yeah. I just think with anti-incumbent thread that is -- seems to be growing across the country this type of thing could have an impact across the board -- not just on McConnell, obviously, who isn't running for re-election --

GANGITANO: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- but on Republicans and Democrats who might be older running for office or re-election again.

Alex, while I have you, you cover the White House obviously. There is a renovation going on -- a new one on the columns in front of the White House. And this is in addition to knocking down the East Wing and everything else we've seen. And I just wonder --

GANGITANO: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- again, as affordability and as Americans are dealing with bread and butter issues at home --

GANGITANO: Um-hum.

BERMAN: -- how much the White House cares about all of these things that may not be relatable to people at home.

GANGITANO: Right. here in D.C. I think the president is pushing around 20 projects that he's done here in D.C. and how that affects people in states worried about if gas prices are going up, with the ceasefire over in Iran. I -- you know, it has nothing to do with affordability issues.

The president, you know, sees dings and scrapes on the pillars of the White House and suddenly these giant life-sized prints of the north portico come down over the columns which, of course, leads to questions of what are these columns going to look like after the fact? These are such iconic columns.

But again, to everyday Americans, I don't think they care what the columns at the White House really look like. They're looking for why isn't -- why wasn't the housing bill passed when they had the opportunity?

BERMAN: Yeah.

GANGITANO: Tonight it probably will become law. But we're looking for affordability on housing. We're looking for gas price affordability. Prices at the grocery store --

[07:40:03]

BERMAN: Yeah.

GANGITANO: -- to go down. And these projects in D.C. I think are confusing to a lot of constituents of why the president is so focused on, you know, beautifying the White House --

BERMAN: Yeah.

GANGITANO: -- and the rest of this city here.

BERMAN: Yeah.

Leigh Ann, I don't think doric versus ionic versus Corinthian is the debate that this White House might want or Republicans want to be having from this White House headed into November.

CALDWELL: Yeah, absolutely not. But the president is trying to remake Washington, D.C. in his own image. He is in legacy-making mode. But the reality is it's -- you know, Alex said that voters are confused about the focus on this --

BERMAN: Um-hum.

CALDWELL: -- which is absolutely true.

If you go back and look at the history of the president's polling numbers during his second term, his polling really started to drop after he demolished the East Wing.

This is not something that voters are focused on, as Alex mentioned. And, you know, people would rather him talk about gas prices and cost of groceries instead of completely dismissing it as something that --

BERMAN: Uh-huh.

CALDWELL: -- is unimportant, as you said.

BERMAN: All right, Alex, Leigh Ann. Thank you both so much for being with us this morning. Have a great weekend -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk about those gas prices, actually. Do a little check in on gas prices. The price has gone up nine cents in the past few days. We've seen prices though falling after the ceasefire with Iran was announced, but then with renewed strikes and this ceasefire hanging by a thread prices are beginning to go north once again. And there are several factors preventing things from getting back on track if you will.

CNN's David Goldman is here to lay them out for you.

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS, SENIOR REPORTER: Yeah. I mean, when we're talking about oil, right, that's been the big problem that we've had for a long time, and it is an issue, right? I mean, when we're at $77 that's --

BOLDUAN: That's definitely down from the peak but not where it was.

GOLDMAN: Right. We were at $112, OK? So it is better than $112.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GOLDMAN: But we were also at $71 just a couple of weeks ago and that's up around six percent. So, you know, that's not the direction that we want to go in.

But there is oil getting out of the strait. There's two ways you can do it. You can hug the Omani coast, except Iran really doesn't like that. And that's what this whole conflict is about. They want you going this way, and that's hugging the Iranian coast because they can register you, right? Eventually, they can charge tolls.

Nevertheless, there's 200 million barrels of oil over the last three weeks that got out. That's 17 days' worth of supply. That's a considerable amount of oil.

But here's the thing. We don't have an oil problem anymore; we have a gas problem. Ten percent of refinery runs -- that's crude made into gasoline -- is out of the picture. That is 8.4 million barrels per day lower than where we were before. And part of this is because of all the refineries that were blown up during the war. There's 30 of them across the Middle East. That means that they can't make this stuff into gasoline the way that they had before.

Now, why can't the U.S. do it? Because the last refinery that we have built in this country was built in 1977, OK? So there's a refinery crunch in the United States.

And layer on top of all that Russia has gotten pummeled by drones from Ukraine. They now are making 800,000 barrels per day less than they were. Russia accounts for around 12 percent of all diesel. This is going to become a problem. Now the world has a fuel problem; not just an oil problem.

BOLDUAN: David, thank you so much. An important check in on where things are and why it's going to be a bit before everything gets back to where everyone would consider it normal.

But let's talk about then the state of the war right now. Big questions this morning if the U.S. and Iran are stepping back maybe from the brink of renewed all-out war. The U.S. is pausing, we've learned, strikes on Iran after days of these tit-for-tat attacks that threatened to blow up that fragile ceasefire.

Multiple officials tell CNN that the U.S. has preparations in place for new strikes if needed, but for now they say they're letting diplomacy try to once again take the lead. Mediators scrambling to bring both sides back to the table.

Joining me right now is retired Vice Admiral Kevin Donegan, the former commander of the U.S. Navy's Fifth Fleet. It's great to see you, Admiral. Thanks for being here.

Over the past week, let's just say, more than 170 military targets in Iran have been hit. I guess really over a matter of just two days.

When you see the target list from these U.S. strikes this week, what does that indicate to you about the intent -- the message that the United States is trying to send?

[07:45:05]

VICE ADM. KEVIN DONEGAN (RET.), FORMER COMMANDER OF THE U.S. NAVY FIFTH FLEET (via Webex by Cisco): Hey, Kate. Always good to be back with you.

And that gets right to the point, right? The volatility in the markets you just discussed are tied to this conflict in the Middle East.

And these strikes that the U.S. did over the past two days -- they said very directly and CENTCOM also said -- CENTCOM commander the same thing -- that these strikes were struck in a direct response to Iran attacking oil tankers that were moving through the Straits of Hormuz.

And the second thing that's been made real clear by the target list you just described -- you know, these are air defense sites, coastal surveillance sites, storage areas for missiles and drones, the small boats that are used to harass ships in the straits. These targets were made to specifically go after Iran's capability to hold that Strait of Hormuz hostage.

What's interesting is what wasn't attacked. They didn't go after leadership. As you know, Khamenei's funeral has been this week. They haven't gone after leadership. They haven't gone after, you know, a more wider infrastructure in Iran.

So the U.S. was basically saying no, you don't control the straits, Iran. These straits are still open and they're not going to go through the route that you want them to go through. They're going to continue to go through the route that's close to Omani waters that was just described.

BOLDUAN: And you're getting at something that I wanted to ask you more about because a big focus from here on out is going to be where the MoU broke down and -- which really comes down to who controls the strait. Which comes down to vague wording in the MoU that Iran and the United States are clearly interpreting differently. It's paragraph five of the agreement and it reads, "Upon the signing

of this MoU, the Islamic Republic of Iran will make arrangements using its best efforts for safe passage of commercial vessels, with no charge for 60 days only, from the Persian Gulf to the Sea of Oman, and vice versa."

How does a Navy admiral interpret that?

DONEGAN: Yeah, that's -- you got right to the words that are -- that are in dispute and where the U.S. and Iran are not aligned.

Iran really is using this -- their -- they view this 'I control the straits issue' as a sovereign issue, almost like that they want to continue their nuclear enrichment as a sovereign issue. And so they're saying the words on the MoU give them the leeway to administer control over the Straits of Hormuz. That's what the Irans -- Iranians believe.

The United States believes, on the other hand, that the Iranians, by signing the MoU, said we're going to immediately open the straits and it's going to go back to normal for free flow of commerce, and Iran was supposed to help clear the mines out of the middle of the straits so we can get back to the normal traffic lanes.

So that's a significant difference because after this -- you know, if this MoU leads to any future agreement this issue has to be resolved.

And you heard NATO even come out this past week -- you know, because the NATO conference was ongoing -- that they believe that the straits have to go back to normal free flow of commerce again. And Iran, on the other hand, is trying to say that no, that's not going to happen. In the end, we're likely to charge tolls and we're going to administer the Straits of Hormuz traffic scheme.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. They -- Iran has definitely indicated that they have no intention, unless forced, to give up the leverage that they seem to have found in this -- in the Strait of Hormuz right now.

Vice Admiral, it's great to see you. Thanks for coming in -- John.

BERMAN: All right, do not try this at home unless your home is on fire while you're not wearing any clothes. A man fights a fire completely naked. And then on the subject of things that go well with nudity, peanut butter. A floor covered in enough peanut butter to make 15,000 sandwiches.

(COMMERCIAL)

[07:53:20]

BERMAN: All right, France inevitable. Just a dominant performance by Les bleus over Morocco. Star Kylian Mbappe had a banger of a goal and basically 90 minutes of smiles.

I want to get right to CNN's Andy Scholes for the latest on all this. They looked so good, Andy. ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: They certainly did, John. I mean, France is so good. I mean, this World Cup, it has been so good mainly because all the stars just continue to show up day after day.

And yesterday it was Kylian Mbappe's turn. You know, most thing think this is France's tournament to lose at this point. And they dominated Morocco in this one. Look at this run by Mbappe in the first half. Just incredible speed. He gets tackled in the box for a penalty. Mbappe though -- he misses the penalty and the game was actually 0-0 at the half.

But in the 60th minute Mbappe really made up for it. He scores on just a fabulous strike right here. That was his eighth goal of the tournament, tying him with Messi for the lead in that Golden Boot chase. Mbappe now has 20 goals in 20 World Cup matches, which is just unreal. France would add another goal and end up winning 2-0.

And in today's "What A Shot" you see some French fans rocking croissants on their heads as they head to their third-straight World Cup semifinal. They now await the winner of Spain and Belgium. That match is at 3:00 Eastern today in Los Angeles.

All right, in baseball, meanwhile, Eduardo Valencia making some Tigers history. The 26-year-old catcher homering in his first-ever at bat. He's the 10th Tigers player to ever do it, and that helped Detroit beat the A's 4-1.

[07:55:02]

And afterwards, Valencia, who is from Venezuela, very emotional while thanking his family and his country, which is still reeling from the recent earthquake.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

EDUARDO VALENCIA, CATCHER, DETROIT TIGERS: I was so excited. I mean, I was waiting for this for my family, for Venezuela, and I'm so excited.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All right. At Wimbledon, meanwhile, we have no more Americans in the field after Coco Gauff lost in the semifinals yesterday to Karolina Muchova. Coco had match point in the third set tiebreak, but she says she panicked and put the winning point into the net. Coco then lost the match and afterwards said she's chucking it up to a learning experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COCO GAUFF, 22-YEAR-OLD WAS CHASING FIRST WIMBLEDON TITLE: It's not a painful story. I think, you know, thousands of people would love to lose the semifinals at Wimbledon on match point. This is something I would love to experience again, for sure. No, but I think that it would make my next moment when I win a match like this even sweeter.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SCHOLES: All right. And we've got the men's semifinals today, John. Novak Djokovic versus Jannik Sinner. It seems like the only two things that can beat Sinner these days are Carlos Alcaraz and the heat, but we'll see. Novak, 39 years old. Can he get it done one more time?

BERMAN: It'll be fun to see.

By the way, hats off to Coco Gauff. She handled that brilliantly.

Andy Scholes, thank you --

SCHOLES: Yeah.

BERMAN: -- very much.

BOLDUAN: How long is the -- now the match going to be with Djokovic?

BERMAN: Djokovic --

BOLDUAN: I mean, it's like they always tend to go, like, 20 hours.

BERMAN: Five hours, yeah. And he's not getting any young either.

BOLDUAN: I mean, J.B.

BERMAN: I'm just saying.

BOLDUAN: Geez, Louise.

BERMAN: I'm just saying. I'm just saying. He could turn 50 during this thing.

BOLDUAN: I mean, he can turn 50 during the match.

Here we go. Let's turn to this. John, don't go anywhere.

Naked and not afraid. Doorbell video captured quite a show over July 4th weekend. Wesley Howard was fast asleep when he woke up to find a dangerous fire outside of his home, and then he jumped into action so quickly. In fact, he was still completely naked as he ran outside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WESLEY HOWARD, PUT OUT HOUSE FIRE NAKED: In that moment, every second matters and that fire could have taken off and we could have lost both homes. And at that point it's like I don't care if someone sees me naked.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: I concur, doctor.

Howard told the local news he served in the Navy for eight years and his training kicked right in. First responders arrived on the scene about 10 minutes later. He suffered minor burns to his foot and forearm but considering, I think he made out pretty well. And he said he would not hesitate to do it again.

Would you like to commentate on that one?

BERMAN: Thank you for specifying the foot and forearm --

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: -- in terms of where he got the burns.

BOLDUAN: If I'd said suffered minor burns you would have questions.

BERMAN: Yes. Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Here we go. Now to California where a man got quite the surprise outside his vacation home. No, it wasn't Lesley Howard -- Wesley Howard. It was a bear near Lake Tahoe. Security video shows a bear charging at him after he was in the garage and he started digging through the trash -- of course. The man says he grabbed the bear spray, but when the bear rushed him, he sprayed both the animal and himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I just kind of caught something out of the left -- my left eye and it was the -- you know, it was a bear rushing in. We were both startled then I just kind of shot the spray and the overspray from the -- you know, the shot hit me and hit my eyes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: I mean, every time I see this, I'm like oh my God.

He says bears are common in the area, of course, but obviously being charged like that not so common.

If you have -- maybe this is connected -- peanut butter. If you have a peanut allergy, you'll want to be careful if you're heading to this museum in the Netherlands. Here is why. More than 800 pounds of peanut butter, which is -- I love when we do this -- which is enough to make roughly 15,000 sandwiches, has been carefully spread across the floor.

It's all in honor of -- to honor the late Dutch artist Wim Schippers who is known for creating absurdist pieces that challenge the conventional ideas of art. Schippers first created the peanut butter floor in the 1960s. When it was displayed a second time in the '90s he famously said, "Isn't it fantastic that we are all standing here looking at peanut butter?" John.

BERMAN: It's an appropriate way to honor him. No one has done more for peanut butter floors than --

BOLDUAN: No.

BERMAN: -- than Mr. Schippers.

BOLDUAN: No. And you know what? Amen. BERMAN: Amen.

All right, dangerous heat dome is expected to impact millions of Americans this weekend. Temperatures across the West expected to soar to triple digits.

With us now is CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam. We just dealt with this in the East. Here we go again.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yeah. Well, can we talk about the peanut floor really quickly. My dog would be in dog heaven if he -- if he saw that. He would just be licking that up for hours and hours and hours, keeping him busy in the mornings. Wow, what a story.

Heat wave -- let's get right to the details because this is another dreaded heat wave but this time it's not parked along the East Coast. And this always blows my mind, and I hope this fascinates you too at home. Everything in the atmosphere is connected. Let me explain.

The heat dome that is going to park itself over the western U.S. is responsible for the flooding that is ongoing across the central parts of the U.S. We call these things "Ridge Riders" right? So what happens is it pushes the jet stream -- what forces showers and thunderstorms -- in a general direction across the northern hemisphere.