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Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL) is Interviewed about Iran; Former ICE Acting Director John Sandweg is Interviewed about the Maine Shooting; Polls on What Americans Think about ICE; Inflation Cooled in June; Epidemiologist Dr. Caitlin Rivers is Interviewed about the Diarrhea Outbreak. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired July 14, 2026 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:30:29]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking this morning, oil prices surging. This has been the biggest one-day jump in six years as the U.S. is about to reimpose its blockade on the Strait of Hormuz. President Trump declared that he wants the United States to be the guardian of the Strait, and he wants to charge non-Iranian cargo ships a 20 percent fee for safe passage. This blockade, the U.S. blockade, begins at 4 p.m. Eastern Time.

With us now is Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, a Democrat from Illinois. He's on the House Oversight and Intelligence Committees.

Congressman, when the president signed the memorandum of understanding in Versailles, one of the things he said was, quote, "this great deal will bring peace and security to the whole region. Many presidents have tried to make peace with Iran and all have failed before me. The leaders of the region have, for the first time, found a president who can help them achieve real peace."

So, that was June 13th or so last month. What went wrong?

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL): Well, it was never -- it was never really a peace agreement. It was, at best, a ceasefire. And right now we're kind of in a quagmire where there's no military resolution to this situation. The president plunges us further into an illegal and unconstitutional war. And on top of that, he's now talking about a 20 percent fee with which basically amounts to an Iran gas tax. Iran imposed it already because of its chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz. And now the president is talking about further fueling that gas tax, which is crippling people at the pump, crippling our economy and fueling inflation.

BERMAN: What you're talking about there is the president's new declaration. I'll read this. "The U.S. will be, from this point forward, known as the guardian of the Hormuz Strait. But as such, and as a matter of fairness, will be reimbursed at the rate of 20 percent on all cargo ships."

So, the president says the U.S. is going to charge a 20 percent fee.

But I want you to listen to everything his most senior advisers, members of the cabinet, have been saying about charging fees in the Strait. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: These are -- it's an international waterway. No country is allowed to charge tolls or fees on an international waterway. That's existing international law.

J.D. VANCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: First of all, we believe international waterways should be free of tolls. And that's been our position. That's what you see, of course, in the 60 days of the MOU.

RUBIO: Because I know of no country on the planet that supports tolling or a fee for the use of the Straits.

PETE HEGSEH, DEFENSE SECRETARY: And trying to impose a tolling system, Iran's plan, a form of international extortion, is unacceptable.

RUBIO: There is zero support, zero support among the Gulf countries for any sort of toll or fees or anything that charges for the use of international waters. The president's made it clear, that's not going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So, do you agree with the president that the U.S. should impose 20 percent fees, or with the vice president, secretary of defense and secretary of state, that charging fees in the Strait of Hormuz is perhaps a violation of international law?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Look, I rarely agree with Marco Rubio on anything, but on this he's correct. It's a violation of international law to toll any waterway, to impose a fee, to impose a tax on the free flow of any cargo through a waterway.

And not only is this illegal, and not only is this going to be a further tax on Americans, but this is going to further drive distance between us and our friends, partners and allies whom we desperately need to further -- to basically resolve this at the bargaining table. And I think that this is just another horrible move and another catastrophic forever war that the president has now committed us to.

BERMAN: You talk about the bargaining table, but what is the deal, do you think? What deal would you make with Iran to stop these hostilities?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Well, first, I think that it probably is prudent to remove these mutual blockades, which are, again, hurting American consumers and hurting our economy in fundamental ways, and then bringing our friends, partners and allies to the table to basically deal with the underlying issue of the Iranian nuclear program. Finally, I think that we have to acknowledge something else, which is

that we're just not doing enough to remove Iran's leverage with regard to the Strait of Hormuz, namely their chokehold on energy supplies and fossil fuels.

[08:35:07]

And we've got to wean ourselves again, in partnership with our friends, partners and allies away from reliance on fossil fuels. And right now, the president is doing the exact opposite, axing every renewable energy product literally under the sun within the Department of Energy, which would basically add to Iran's leverage, not do the opposite.

BERMAN: Very quickly, Congressman, without getting into the details, because Kate's going to talk about this extensively in just a moment, but there was a 26-year-old man killed in Maine yesterday by ICE agents. Details about what happened are still scant. Homeland Security says the agent, the ICE official, feared for public safety, but there were no body cameras being worn there, and we have no real details of what happened. We saw a similar event happen in Texas over the last few weeks. So, where is this headed this summer?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: And remember, this also happened in Minnesota. It happened in Chicago as well. ICE basically claims that, you know, these cars are being used as weapons and then justifying the use of deadly force, which is completely against the evidence and against the law.

I think where this is headed is going to be further efforts in Congress to basically block what's happening with ICE and DHS. I think Markwayne Mullin is going to have to come before Congress ASAP to answer for DHS' actions as well.

BERMAN: Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi, from Illinois, we do appreciate your time this morning on this.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you, John.

BERMAN: As I said, we really just don't have answers as to what happened there.

Kate.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: That's exactly right. I mean there are a lot of questions and not a lot of clarity after an ICE agent shot and killed a 26-year-old man in Maine yesterday. This happened less than a week, as John was just talking about, after another fatal ICE shooting that happened during a traffic stop in Houston. The Maine congresswoman who represents the town where this happened told John just last hour that the man, John Sebastian Guerrero, was shot four times through the windshield, and she called it a botched operation.

Senator Angus King of Maine said that he was told by the DHS secretary that Guerrero was not the target of the operation though. Guerrero was from Colombia, authorized to work in the United States, according to an immigrant rights group.

Now, DHS says an officer opened fire, quote, "fearing for public safety" after they say Guerrero's car attempted to flee the scene. One of the videos out, you see the car moving still and an officer trying to open a door. But one of the videos out does show agents pulling the man's body out of the car. Witnesses describe seeing his partner and his three-year-old daughter, frantic and emotional at the scene.

Joining me right now is a former acting director of ICE, John Sandweg.

John, thanks for being here.

JOHN SANDWEG, FORMER ACTING DIRECTOR, ICE; Yes.

BOLDUAN: What should we know and what should we still not know 24 hours after a shooting like this?

SANDWEG: You know, Kate, at this point, honestly, I think the department -- the statement they put out was better than the statements we've seen following the Minnesota shooting certainly, better than, frankly, the statement we saw last week in Houston. At this point, that's about all we should know until such time as there's been an investigation and we can make -- we learn exactly what happened.

But I think, again, this demonstrates why it's so critical that the department get those body cameras out quickly, because at this point, with the number of shootings we've had, with the credibility questions that are raised about DHS following those statements in Minnesota, following everything that's happened over the last year and a half, it is essential that we get those body cameras deployed quickly so that the public, who has a right to know what's going on, has a better sense of exactly what happened in these shootings.

BOLDUAN: Let me play -- we heard this from Angus King last night, but we also just heard from the congresswoman talking about the body cameras issue here.

Let me play what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHELLIE PINGREE (D-ME): We're also demanding answers about why these officers weren't wearing body cameras. Congress funded the money to require body cameras, and they have not been distributed throughout the state.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So, after Minnesota, the then DHS secretary did say cameras were going to be rolled out for all of these officers. Do you -- do you think they're slow rolling this rollout? Is there a reasonable explanation why they do not all have cameras at this point since it is funded?

SANDWEG: You know, Kate, I'm not entirely sure, right. The department has said they're going to roll out the body cameras. The body cameras have been rolled out in part.

But look, it's hard to see any more excuses for why there's a delay. Certainly it's not money. The department -- ICE has never been better funded, right, between the tens of billions of dollars that are appropriated to them in the big, beautiful bill, between the two-year appropriation money, the more tens of billions they just received from Congress. There is no shortage of funding at ICE right now for all operations.

[08:40:02]

Look, the other thing I'd tell you, though, Kate, is, you know, sometimes you face some resistance from within the officers themselves, right? But in my experience, more often than not, the body camera ends up defending the officer's position. Oftentimes it validates them. And certainly if I was an officer, and if I was at ICE now, when this era, when there is really a lack, you know, a real questions, the public has a real distrust right now of everything coming out of ICE, right? I would -- I would encourage the deployment of the body cameras because, as I said, so often they end up validating the officer's position and his description of what he saw or she saw during those incidents that led to, you know, one of these use of force episodes.

BOLDUAN: The statement from DHS that we were talking about a little bit ago, in part it said this, that "the vehicle attempted toto flee the scene and fearing for public safety an officer discharged his weapon." A reporter on the ground says that this is a pretty residential area. You know, homes and apartment buildings were right there kind of where this intersection of where this shooting happened on the street. What do you think of this aspect of the statement from DHS right now, and what do you want to see happen next? What do you think people should reasonably expect to happen next?

SANDWEG: Kate, setting aside the particulars of this incident for one second, what's very clear to me is we have a problem. We now have at least 20 shootings of individuals by ICE agents, 18 of which occurred in vehicle stops. You ask anybody with law enforcement experience, they will tell you, vehicular stops are difficult. They are dangerous. They put the officers in danger. They put the subjects in danger.

I think, you know, and let me back up further, federal agents generally, they don't do -- they don't do vehicle stops to the extent that state and locals do. And certainly ICE ERO, the agency that's involved, the sub agency of ICE that's involved in most of these shootings, they do not have widespread experience in vehicular stops.

I think it is absolutely time that we take a hard look, if not a moratorium on vehicular stops, until such time as we can decide, you know, what do we need to do to prevent this from reoccurring? In both these instances, Kate, these were not individuals with serious criminal histories. I don't know of any exigent circumstances that said the only way to take them into custody is to execute that high risk vehicular stop.

And this isn't just an issue for the individual, the subjects who have been shot, but rather, you look at the officers themselves. And remember, in most -- in almost every one of these cases, the officers felt like they were put in danger. Why are we continuing to put ICE agents in danger to take into custody a non-criminal who appears to pose no threat to public safety when there are other ways we could take that individual into custody. Wait until they arrive at their destination. Wait until they leave their residence.

My point is this, we never -- there is no doubt that, again, with 18 shootings, that we have a serious problem and it's time that we put a pause and take a hard look at this to stop this from happening again.

BOLDUAN: All right, John, you have often been able to take kind of -- some kind of -- a complex issues around immigration that are often fraught with a lot of emotion and bring some clarity to it. And I think you're asking -- what you're posing is important questions of something people really should be starting to consider today, especially.

Thank you.

John

BERMAN: Obviously, while we are sensitive to the loss of life here and everything surrounding that, there are political implications to all of this.

With us now, CNN chief data analyst Harry Enten.

Harold, good to see you this morning.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Nice to see you, John.

BERMAN: So again, one ICE shooting, a death at the hands of ICE this week, one last week. How is ICE seen right now by the voting public?

ENTEN: Yes, it's a very different picture from what we saw in term number one for Donald Trump at this point. And you could just see this in terms of, take a look at ICE's net favorable rating during Trump's term.

You know, you go back to July of 2018, among all voters they had a positive net favorable rating at plus one. But look at this massive decline now. We're talking about minus 20 points. So, we're talking about a 21-point decline among all voters. And that is being driven in large part by independents. Again, just look at these declines here. Among independents in term one at this point for Donald Trump, ICE's net favorable rating was minus three. Not so great, but not terrible either.

Look at this number now. It's negative 42 points. That's a nearly 40- point decline on the net favorable rating of ICE right now compared to where we were in term number one for Donald Trump at this point. And this is just a real sign that the voters and independents are seeing what's happening on the ground. And the actions of ICE are having consequences in the court of public opinion, especially among independents. BERMAN: All right, we should note, this happened in Maine, where we've

been talking about a Senate race there every day.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: This is a state where there's a lot of politics, a lot of campaigning going on. And what are people saying about whether they want their government, their local government, to be cooperating with us?

ENTEN: Yes. Yes, you know, I think this is the real question, right? There have been all of these battles between the local governments and whether or not they're going to allow ICE to enforce their immigration policies. And just look at these numbers again. We're talking about actions having consequences in the court of public opinion. Local governments must cooperate with ICE.

[08:45:01]

You know, you go back to June of 2025, the majority of Americans, 51 percent said yes. Just 45 percent said no. These numbers have flipped. These numbers have flipped over the last year. Look at this. Now 53 percent of voters said, in fact, no, local governments do not, in fact, need to cooperate with ICE, compared to this 46 percent who say yes. So, ICE's net favorable rating is having big changes in terms of -- and big consequences in terms of how Americans and how voters are viewing whether or not their local government should cooperate with ICE. And, of course, Donald Trump and the federal government say, yes, you must. But the voters are saying, actually, no, you don't need to anymore.

BERMAN: And, of course, immigration was an issue the president has run on three times for president of the United States.

ENTEN: Yes.

BERMAN: One of his stronger issues heading into this presidency. Where is he now?

ENTEN: Yes. OK. So, you know, trust on immigration. This was one of the pillars of Donald Trump's first campaign back in 2016, winning that Republican primary. He had a massive advantage in terms of, you know, immigration, trusting Trump on immigration. Back in November of 2024, when he won that second term, 53 percent of Americans said yes. Just 46 percent said no.

Look at this number now. Again, a massive change in the court of public opinion. Now, 58 percent of Americans say, no, they do not, in fact, trust Trump on immigration. Just 41 percent say yes.

So, what we're seeing with ICE is finding its way to the Trump administration at large, to Trump at large. No longer is this pillar of Donald Trump's support something he can count on anymore. The American people have, simply put, lost the trust -- or Donald Trump has lost the trust of the American people on immigration. BERMAN: The White House wanted Minnesota out of the headlines back in

the winter. Now immigration, ICE issues, coming back into the headlines in Maine and Texas.

Harry Enten, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you, Johnny.

BERMAN: Kate.

BOLDUAN: All right, breaking -- coming in moments ago, new data showing inflation has cooled significantly in the month of June as gas prices fell last month.

CNN's David Goldman is joining me now.

The numbers are just in. What are you seeing?

DAVID GOLDMAN, CNN BUSINESS SENIOR REPORTER: Yes. So, 3.5 percent is the new inflation rate. This was down from 4.2 percent in the previous month. That is the first time that we've seen that number fall like that since 2020.

BOLDUAN: oh.

GOLDMAN: This is a big, big decline. This number fell. It's the first time in two years that we've seen the month over month number decline.

So, this is good news. Let's not sell this short. We like when inflation is falling.

But, and there's always a but, this is not just the headline number that we're talking about. We're also talking about what happens if you take out energy, if you take out food. And that number increased to 2.6 percent.

Now, we were at 2.9 percent in the previous month. So, it's nice to see that that's falling as well. But remember, energy is the big reason why this is falling, right? We fell two -- we fell 5.7 percent in the past month because we had falling gas prices.

BOLDUAN: OK. Right.

GOLDMAN: We had falling oil prices. But what's happening right now?

BOLDUAN: We had something of a ceasefire is what was talked about.

GOLDMAN: Well, yes, exactly. We had the ceasefire. Now look what's happening with oil prices, right?

BOLDUAN: Yes.

GOLDMAN: We are back to one month highs here. We haven't seen $80 oil in -- since the middle of June. So, already we're looking at old data. And this is something that we're going to have to continue to watch as we get July's numbers next month. BOLDUAN: OK. Important to see the impact that a ceasefire and gas

prices going down, what that does to inflation. We look in the past now at this. What now July is going to look like is going to be quite something.

GOLDMAN: Well, that's the thing. I mean, you know, so if we're going to continue this trend and gas prices are going to keep going higher and oil prices are going to keep going higher.

BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean, what was it, a -- what was it -- the highest one day jump in oil prices in six years we just saw?

GOLDMAN: Yes, that's right. Oil prices were almost up 10 percent in a single day. We hadn't seen that since the pandemic. So, you know, we don't like comparing things to the pandemic. We certainly don't like comparing inflation. We don't like comparing oil to the pandemic either.

BOLDUAN: OK. So, important data in looking back. Let's see where we are looking forward,

Jonathan.

BERMAN: We have these rapid changes. It makes month old data hard to process here because of everything that's just happened.

BOLDUAN: That's -- that's what normally we -- this actually has a lingering effect when we get the CPI number in, and now, not so much.

BERMAN: Thank goodness for the czar of the telestrator, though, to help us understand it all.

All right, a driver rescued after being trapped inside an overturned car. You can see the operation to get him out right there. Just stunning.

And details this morning. New details on this dangerous, pretty disgusting parasite causing thousands to become ill with explosive diarrhea.

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[08:54:07]

BOLDUAN: So, we are hearing now from the 65 year old man, he's a grandfather, who was tossed in the air by a bison straight into the air in Yellowstone National Park. Carl McDaniel says that he was taking photos of the animal with his 13 year old grandson when a truck drove by and blew its horn. McDaniel said the bison then came running right at them. CNN spoke to a witness about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE MACLEOD, PHOTOGRAPHER: I started running over there. I stopped filming, ran over there and a bunch of other campers ran with me and we hazed the bison away. He ran off. And then the victim was on his side. He was complaining of really severe pain in his leg. And the first thing he asked is, how is my grandson?

Once he hit the grandfather, and the grandfather was laying motionless on the ground, he was looking for some other threat. And what I was worried about is, he wasn't going to find any other threat there, so he was going to go back to the victim and really do him in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[08:55:04]

BOLDUAN: My goodness. So, McDaniel did break his leg in four places. He also suffered some pretty serious bruises. He says he's going to be undergoing physical -- facing physical therapy now, but that the injuries were not as catastrophic for sure as they could be. We wish him a very speedy recovery. That is wild.

So, a Fourth of July celebration turns now into a criminal investigation. Deputies say a passenger was caught launching fireworks out of a moving vehicle on the interstate, and the fireworks landed in traffic lanes as cars were driving by. People inside the car denied doing it until deputies showed them the video from the sheriff's air unit. Passenger now faces a charge of shooting a deadly missile from a moving vehicle.

New video of first responders jumping into action to save a man from an overturned car in a creek in Oklahoma City. The police and fire crews on scene, they did not realize anyone was in the car actually when they got to the -- got into the water. Officers pulled the man out of the car through a window and obviously then got him to safety. He is said to be OK. No word on what led to this in the first place.

John.

BERMAN: Yes, incredible images right there.

All right, this morning, health officials in Michigan say they believe lettuce may be the transmitter of the parasite that has sickened more than 3,000 people with symptoms that include explosive diarrhea. They say other foods, though, should not be ruled out.

With us now is Caitlin Rivers, infectious disease epidemiologist and senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.

So, just talk to me about this parasite and whether these numbers we're getting, some 3,000 people, is that a lot to be sickened by something like this?

DR. CAITLIN RIVERS, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGIST: Cyclosporiasis is a parasite found on fresh produce. Often imported produce. Common sources in the past have been lettuce, raspberries, bagged salad. The current outbreak is still under investigation, but Michigan health authorities are suggesting that salad or bagged lettuce may be part of what the, excuse me, what they are seeing. And 3,000 cases or more is definitely one of the largest outbreaks, if not the largest outbreak we've seen on record. A typical year in the United States will be 3,000, 4,000 for the entire year, and we've already surpassed that here in early July.

BERMAN: Is there a reason why this one is bigger than the others we've seen?

RIVERS: Part of the reason is that health officials have not been able to identify the source yet. The longer that contaminated products are being sold, being served in restaurants, available to consumers, the more people who will become infected. And so, it's really a race against time to identify what's causing the outbreak so that it can be pulled from the shelves and keep people safe.

BERMAN: So, they say lettuce, but they say other things can't be ruled out. What should we be doing as consumers?

RIVERS: Yes, these are very complex investigations. There are thousands of people who need to be interviewed and to look back in their history and see what they have eaten that could be responsible. So, it is taking a longer time than I know health officials would wish for.

In the meantime, I recommend being careful or even avoiding things like lettuce, bagged salad, maybe raspberries, which have been implicated in the past. That's going to be particularly important if you're immunocompromised and older adult, infants, because those people are at higher risk of severe illness from the diarrhea, which can sometimes last for weeks, that cause -- that this illness causes.

BERMAN: Any advice on what people should do if they do end up with this other than kind of suffer?

RIVERS: Yes, you can go to the doctor. You should talk to your doctor about your symptoms because the cyclosporiasis test is special. It's not going to come up on a standard G.I. panel. And so, it's important that clinicians have this in mind when they're evaluating someone with diarrhea that has potentially lasted for days or weeks.

I think it's also important to note that rinsing, rinsing your produce, is not a reliable way to remove the parasite. It may help, but it is not necessarily going to wash off all of the contaminant. And so, keep that in mind when you're considering how to treat your produce and whether to avoid or be extra thorough with your rinsing.

BERMAN: Yes, I just think that's worth reiterating here because one of the things we're always told is, make sure you wash everything, wash the greens, you know, wash your hands, everything is going to be a-OK. In this case, just rinsing your lettuce may not be enough if that lettuce has the parasites?

RIVERS: That's right. And a couple of reasons. One, the contaminant is sticky. And so rinsing water is not necessarily going to dislodge all of it. The second reason is that the kinds of foods that have been implicated in past outbreaks, again, that's things like lettuce, raspberries, blackberries, they are soft, they're gentle and hard to scrub, and they have a lot of surfaces and crevices. And so that makes it difficult to really make sure your produce is clean. BERMAN: Yes, think about the surface of a raspberry there and think

about what it's like trying to wash them out. You can see why things are hard to get out.

I do have to say, this is a time maybe you want to be cooking all your vegetables no matter what until this thing gets under control.

[09:00:01]

Dr. Caitlin Rivers, thank you very much for explaining this so well.

A brand-new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts right now.