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LULAC Demands an Independent Investigation of Deadly Shooting; Trump Won't Sign Housing Bill; Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL) is Interviewed about the Housing Bill; Meta's New A.I. Tool Sparks Backlash. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired July 10, 2026 - 09:30   ET

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

[09:30:00]

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yet have full support in Congress enough to pass.

Now, this bipartisan housing bill, what it would have done, it -- or what it does do, it encourages more supply. It also places a limit on private equity companies buying up single family homes. So, this was a key moment for the president to have the pomp and circumstance and the optics of a celebration of a bill that will make life a little bit more affordable for Americans heading into those critical midterm elections. The president depriving his party of that opportunity.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, and also in this he's telling them to terminate the filibuster. And if they don't, then he says he's going to call -- "Republicans are then going to be the dumb party who's allowed this horrible calamity to happen to our party." Messages from the president this morning.

Betsy, thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Much more to come on that.

John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, this morning, growing questions about how and why a man was killed by ICE officers in Texas. Initially, ICE officials say that Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year- old Mexican national, rammed a law enforcement vehicle and refused to follow verbal commands during a traffic stop that they say was part of a targeted operation. Now sources say that Araujo was not the target of the operation. And an attorney who spoke to three men who were riding in Araujo's vehicle, they say the statement from ICE, or they told the lawyer, the lawyer says, that the statement from ICE was completely false.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUGO BALDERAS-IBARRA, ATTORNEY: After speaking with these three men that were in the vehicle with Lorenzo, I have no doubt that what these ICE agents are saying is completely false. At no point did they ever use the van to ram into the ICE agents, and at no point were these ICE agents' lives ever in any danger. These men deserve respect. They deserve answers. They deserve justice.

And we are demanding an independent investigation so that we can get them the justice and the answers that they deserve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: With us now is Juan Proano. He is the CEO of the League of United Latin American Citizens.

Thank you for being with us this morning.

Your organization has been working closely with Lorenzo's family. How are they doing this morning?

JUAN PROANO, CEO, LULAC: Well, good morning, John, and thank you so much for reporting on this tragic story.

Today's going to be a tough day. They will be picking up the body today. They will be planning the funeral arrangements. And at the same time, we'll be working on an independent autopsy as well. Our first step in understanding what actually happened on this terrible day.

BERMAN: So, we did hear from that attorney who spoke to the three men who were in the vehicle saying their account does not match that of ICE. What questions do you have?

PROANO: Well, we've actually spoken to family members of the men that were with Lorenzo that day, including his brother, Victor, and the two other -- two other men as well. We also don't believe that there was anyone in the vehicle that was actually being targeted either to be very frank and candid with you as well.

You know, Hugo put it, you know, correctly, or bluntly, there was no damage to the vehicle on the front side or the back side. The side panels, you can see kind of, sort of a black skid mark. That was actually by -- created by the ICE vehicle that was pursuing Lorenzo. And so, we don't believe anything that ICE is saying. We don't believe DHS. We don't trust the FBI to do an independent investigation.

We have met with the local district attorney, Sean Teare and Je'Rell Rogers, who heads up the civil rights office, and they have committed, and we believe they're sincere, that they will try to do one, but they do need coordination with the federal agencies that are currently in charge and, more importantly, in possession of all the evidence. And they've already reported that they do not have body cam footage. And that is really just incredible to believe in this day and age.

BERMAN: They do not have body cam footage from the ICE officers involved, so says ICE and federal officials.

So, talk to me about the difficulties in investigating here, because as you point out, this is under theoretically the federal umbrella. So, what can you realistically hope to achieve?

PROANO: Well, you know, in Minneapolis, we met with the attorney general, Keith Ellison. There, different circumstances in that you have a Democratic governor, a Democratic AG, a Democratic mayor here. The fact of the matter is, is that Abbott has been silent on this issue. Paxton is not going to be of any help or assistance here either. And so, you know, we are going to continue to push and do everything that we can to get public support for this. We're working with members of Congress and Representative Sylvia Garcia as well.

[09:35:00]

And so, we hope that, you know, given the national attention that is on this case right now, we've had over 150,000 people sign a petition asking for an independent investigation.

So, the country is paying very close attention to what's happening here. You know, we will do our own investigation if that's really what it comes to at the end of the day because Lorenzo was an honest man. He was a father. He was a provider. A protector to his family. And he was one year younger than I am, to be very candid with you. He was young, he was healthy, he was strong. He had a whole lifetime ahead of him. And his family misses him. And it's just terrible what has happened. And we want to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else.

BERMAN: Juan Proano, we appreciate your time this morning. Thank you very much.

There is breaking news. The president just announced he is not going to sign this bipartisan housing bill touted by Republicans, supported by both parties in Congress. Why he says he won't do it.

And a man jumps out of bed in the middle of the night naked to put out a fire outside his home. It is all caught, tastefully I should note with some edits, on camera.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:40:43]

BOLDUAN: All right, we're continuing to follow this breaking news coming from the White House. President Trump just announced on social media that he will not sign the bipartisan housing affordability bill that Congress sent over and passed and were essentially begging him to sign. Why will he not sign it with so much support for it? He says it's in protest.

Let's get to CNN's Jeff Zeleny. He's got much more on this.

What do you make of this, Jeff?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Kate, look, the bottom line is, less than four months before the midterm elections, the president is missing a chance intentionally to pivot to a message of affordability. House Republican, Senate Republicans were desperately hoping that he would sign this bill, would celebrate this bill, talk about this bill to show that the Republican Congress is trying to do something for affordability, for housing affordability.

It is one of the central issues facing Americans across the country. Everywhere we go we hear about affordability and housing affordability. But the president, he's saying he's not going to sign it.

He's also not vetoing it. So, effectively, it is the same thing. It is going to take effect at midnight unless he would make a decision to veto it. But he's missing the chance to talk about this bill, to use the bully pulpit of the presidency like only he has to pivot back to affordability again in protest of this voting bill not being approved by Congress.

So, many Republicans are rolling their eyes at this, thinking it's a missed opportunity, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Jeff, it's great to see you. Thank you so much.

ZELENY: You bet.

BOLDUAN: John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now is Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Democrat from Florida.

Good to see you this morning.

So, what's your take on the news that President Trump says he will not sign --

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL): Good to see you, John.

BERMAN: What do you think of the fact that the president says he will not sign this bipartisan housing bill?

SCHULTZ: Well, John, I look at this as a mom of three young adult children who graduated from college and all have full time jobs but are still living at home because being able to afford rent or do what I was able to do when my husband and I got married and buy our first home when we were in our 20s is completely unaffordable. I mean it's not really surprising. President Trump, just a couple weeks ago, said that affordable housing is a big yawn. I mean the fact that that topic bores him just shows how out of touch he is. And the fact that he -- I mean -- look, the bill I was proud to sign -- to support this bill, the road to affordable housing bill, one of the few things that we passed that is bipartisan. And it's bipartisan because we're all hearing -- I hear in my district all the time about people who cannot afford rent, who are struggling to be able to put together enough money for a down payment. And we've got to make sure that we -- when this bill becomes law, really concentrate on getting resources out and the policies that will change once it becomes law.

But the fact that the president could care less and won't even make a big deal out of it tells you all you need to know about his priorities, which is his billionaire buddies, and not people who are struggling.

BERMAN: So, he's not signing it, but he's also not vetoing it. So, in theory, it becomes law anyway. SCHULTZ: Correct.

BERMAN: So, does it have an impact? Does this move by him have an impact?

SCHULTZ: (INAUDIBLE) small phase.

Oh, of course. We'll the move by him doesn't have any more or less of an impact than what the Congress of the United States did. We came together in a bipartisan way, passed the road to affordable housing act, sent the bill to the president's desk, and he yawned, shrugged his shoulders, essentially is telling the American people, I don't really care about your affordable housing plight or any other issue around affordability. I mean, gas prices, utilities, rent, food. I mean, it's just unbelievable.

This president does not care about the struggle that people have in making ends meet. That's what people talk to me about all the time at home, how unaffordable their life is. And they want to make sure that we are rowing in the same direction, all hands on deck. The fact that the president isn't going to have a bill signing ceremony, or even put this -- his own signature on this really shows you where his priorities are.

BERMAN: I will say, you know, three adult children and apparently at least one dog living at home also. The president fired --

[09:45:01]

SCHULTZ: Yes. More than one.

BERMAN: More than one.

The president fired three members of the Election Assistance Commission. I'm wondering what signal you receive from that.

SCHULTZ: This is a shocking outrage. What people are telling me at home, when I am running all over my district, they're actually worried. For the first time in my whole career, John, I have voters telling me that they're worried that the president's going to cancel elections. That he's going to declare martial law. There are people who actually have said to me that they're worried that they're not even going to have elections in November. And, you know, I try to reassure them. But when the president takes a move -- makes a move like this, getting rid of all of the rest of the election assistance commission members, I mean, that was the central focus of lawsuits where he signed an executive order, remember, that tried to force states to turn over their citizenship rolls and have the Election Assistance Commission change the form, the vote by mail form, to ask whether someone's a citizen. And a court stopped them from doing that.

So, he is doing everything he can to control elections and shape them the way he wants to come out, rather than make sure the voters can have their own free will determine the outcome of elections, as is the hallmark of the United States of America's democracy. BERMAN: You say you're running all over your district. It's a -- it's

a reshaped district that you're going to run in for re-election here after redistricting in Florida. And it's been controversial. You are now running in a district with different borders. Its majority minority. And there are some in Florida who have said you shouldn't be running there. And support from House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries hasn't, I guess, officially endorsed. He says you've done a great job, but he's not weighing in on the race. How do you feel about that?

SCHULTZ: Well, what I feel today is real gratification. I was endorsed by our, you know, local paper, the hometown paper, "The Sun-Sentinel," strongly endorsed, and they said clearly that because of my experience, my seniority, my ability to deliver resources, my -- the critical times that we're in right now, that my district should vote for me because they want to make sure that because Trump and DeSantis went after the most Democratic county in the state, which is our -- my home county, Broward County, and tried to blow up our districts so that we would dilute our political power and take away Broward's political power, my seniority and experience and ability to deliver, especially as a senior member of the Appropriations Committee, is absolutely critical and not one that we can afford to lose.

BERMAN: If you are re-elected and Democrats take control, would you vote for Hakeem Jeffries as party leader?

SCHULTZ: Oh, of course. I mean, I strongly support Leader Jeffries. I know he will be the next speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives. I'm a proud member of his leadership team. He selected me to be a co- chair of the Steering and Policy Committee. I'm going to sit right next to him, right by his side, to ensure that we can overturn some of the horrific policies of this Trump administration and hold Trump accountable for the abominable, outrageous cuts to Medicaid.

We have five million people who lost health care because of the repeal of the enhanced premium tax credits. A million. You know, four million who lost nutrition assistance. A million of those are kids. I mean, we have to make sure Hakeem Jeffries is speaker. Democrats take the majority so that we can make sure we focus on the priorities that I'm hearing about all over my community, which is life is unaffordable, the Republicans don't care, Trump is corrupt and he's taking care of his billionaire buddies and we've got to help turn that around.

BERMAN: Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, from Florida, appreciate you being with us.

All right, for Instagram users, Meta's new tool lets anyone pull pictures from your public account to create A.I. images.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:53:25]

BOLDUAN: So, new this morning, Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, is facing backlash from users over its new A.I. tool. The company rolled out Muse Image this week. The feature allows people to use images from public Instagram profiles, like J.B.'s, to create A.I. images, but without users knowing.

CNN's Hadas Gold has much more on this.

What have they done with John Berman's face?

HADAS GOLD, CNN A.I. CORRESPONDENT: So, what this is, is it's an A.I. image both generation and editing tool. The idea being that you have -- you post a cool image of yourself at the beach. You want to make the colors look a little bit better. You can edit it.

But another feature in this is that you can just put somebody's username, @johnbermancnn or whatever your handle is, and I'd be able to edit your images using A.I., essentially potentially creating deepfakes of you without your consent or knowledge of -- you won't get a notification saying, hey, somebody used your photos that you've posted and now has created some sort of deepfake out of it.

Everybody is opted in automatically. Now, if you are under the age of 18, or you have a private Instagram account, you are not opted in. And so, there's been a lot of backlash from not only users but also privacy and safety advocates because the fear is, is that people will be using this tool and creating inappropriate deepfakes.

We've seen situations in the past when X integrated the Grok edited -- image editing into its feature. That's when we saw people starting to do those very disturbing undressing of people and the like.

Now, to be clear, any image you ever post on the internet publicly of yourself, of your family, anybody could download that image, edit it using A.I., and make terrible things out of it.

BOLDUAN: Right.

[09:55:00]

GOLD: But when a platform, like Instagram, or like X, integrates it into their system, it makes it very easy for anybody to do it very, very simply.

BOLDUAN: Right. Exactly. Yes.

GOLD: Now, here is how to turn this off.

BERMAN: Thank you.

GOLD: If you want to be able to turn this off of your Instagram. The very blunt, easy way to do this is just to put your Instagram to private. But if you don't want to make your Instagram private, first go to your profile. On the top right corner of your screen you'll see three lines. Tap that. Scroll down. Tap on sharing and reuse. And then under allow people to use your content on Instagram and with A.I. features on Meta, toggle both of those options off for both posts and reels.

But again, this is another warning. Anything that you publicly post on the internet of yourself, of your children, of your family, anybody could take those images, edit them, and create deepfakes out of them. This is a tool that Meta use -- that can be used for good things. It can be used for fun. But there's a lot of concern over privacy and safety. And so, if you want to protect yourself and your family even more, make sure to turn those features off.

BOLDUAN: Yes. That -- talk about ending the week with some news you can seriously use right now.

BERMAN: I'm going to have to go use backstage right now.

BOLDUAN: Exactly.

Thanks, Hadas.

BERMAN: Thank you all for joining us. This has been CNN NEWS CENTRAL. "THE SITUATION ROOM," and adult Play-Doh, up next.

BOLDUAN: Stop it.

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