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ICE Agents Shoot 26-Year-Old in Maine; Two Fatal ICE Shootings in Six Days; U.S. Resumes Blockade of Iran Ports; Rep. Ami Bera (D-CA) is Interviewed about the Naval Blockade of Iranian Ports; Summer Storm Threat. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 14, 2026 - 09:00   ET

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

[09:00:00]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Under control.

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

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

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, the breaking news this morning, more questions, no clear answers after an ICE agent shot and killed a 26-year-old man in Maine. How federal officials are justifying the shooting, as a friend of the man killed says that the family is terrified.

And the ceasefire is in tatters. Global oil prices are spiking just as U.S. Central Command says it will restart the naval blockade on Iran today, and the president is declaring he wants to start charging tolls to secure the Strait of Hormuz.

And new video shows terrifying moments a truck loses control and flies off -- oh my God -- it flies off the side of the interstate.

Sara is out today. I'm Kate Bolduan, with John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: All right, this morning, new questions and really few answers surrounding the death of a 26-year-old man in Maine, killed in an encounter with ICE. A friend of Joan Sebastian Guerrero tells CNN his family is too scared to talk to anyone, even as aid groups offer assistance. The 26-year-old was killed yesterday morning when an ICE agent opened fire. This is what one witness says he saw and heard.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANIEL BOUCHER, WITNESS: And I clearly heard the victim say, I tried to stop. Clearly heard him say that.

The ICE agent that shot him walked right in front of me. And I -- of course I had -- I was emotional and I just let him have it. And he looked at me and he said, he tried to run me over or something to that effect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: All right, this was Maine yesterday. You'll remember, last week, Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was killed by ICE in Houston.

I want to get right to CNN's Jason Carroll, who is live in Biddeford, Maine, this morning, not far from where all this all happened.

Jason, what's the latest from up there?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, complicating this whole matter is, John, that there were no body cameras. And so because no body cameras on these ICE agents, still a lot of questions about specifically what happened right out here at this intersection behind me. A lot of folks here in this community are asking for more transparency when it comes to the investigation going forward and, if possible, more accountability.

Again, it took Department of Homeland Security some 12 hours before they finally came out with their version of what happened out here. When they did that, they said the following, saying that "ICE was conducting targeted surveillance on the last known address" of a person they described as an "illegal alien with a final order of removal." The person "departed the residence in a vehicle. ICE law enforcement attempted to conduct a vehicle stop. The vehicle attempted to flee the scene and fearing for public safety, an officer discharged his weapon."

Now, this all taking place in Congressman Chellie Pingree's district. She had a bit of a different take on what happened. Listen to what she has to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHELLIE PINGREE (D-ME): By all accounts, he was the wrong man, not the person that ICE had been targeting. He was headed off to work. Lived very close nearby. And there was a nice operation going on looking for someone else. But he was in the car. And by all accounts, shortly after the shooting, his wife and three year old daughter in her Bluey pajamas with a pink backpack were also on the scene, so they witnessed seeing their father's dead body.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: So, part of the reason why the congresswoman says that is because you'll remember, John, that DHS initially said that the person who was killed was actually the target of their investigation. And then later on it was revealed that that was not the case, that the person who was killed, Guerrero, was not, in fact, the target of their investigation.

As for Guerrero, again, 26 years old, a father, a young father. He was apparently on his way to work when he was stopped here at this intersection. His mother, from Colombia, releasing a statement about what happened, saying in part, "you went to search for the American dream and that same country ended your life. Fly high."

John.

BERMAN: It's going to be very difficult for that family, especially now when there are so few answers to be had.

Jason Carroll, digging for us in Biddeford, Maine. Jason, thank you for being there.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: So, CNN's Priscilla Alvarez, I want to bring her in, she's been following this story very closely, as well as the other deadly incidents involving ICE agents since President Trump's immigration crackdown began.

Priscilla, what is DHS saying about all of this?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, my sources within the Department of Homeland Security, and those who have left the Department of Homeland Security, were all stunned by the statement that the federal agency put out yesterday.

[09:05:10]

And that also includes federal law enforcement sources who couldn't quite understand why the officer fired his weapon.

And the reason for that is because in the statement the Department of Homeland Security put out, they said that the officer discharged his weapon, quote, "fearing for public safety" and citing the man attempting to flee in his vehicle. The reason that's so confounding for so many current and former Homeland Security officials is because that alone does not explain why he felt the need to fatally shoot an individual. And that's because the Department of Homeland Security use of force policy specifically says that an officer, quote, "may use deadly force only when the law enforcement officer has a reasonable belief that the subject of such force poses an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the law enforcement or to another person." I'm quoting there from, again, the use of force policy within the Department of Homeland Security.

Now, there are some exceptions, and that is why an investigation is going to be so critical here to understand the officer's vantage point as well. But one federal law enforcement source told me this, quote, "every law enforcement officer in a America is scratching their head trying to figure out what that means." Again, in reference to the department's statement.

Now, this statement was notable also because previously the department has said that the individuals who have been fatally shot, including the one in Houston last week, used their -- or weaponized their vehicle. That was not part of this statement. It's also notable that, again, the person who was shot was not the target of the immigration enforcement operation. So, all of this raises so many questions, not only among observers and county officials, but also within the department itself. I also spoke to another source who told me that the concern here, too,

is that the trust that Secretary Markwayne Mullin was trying to gain among the American public after Minneapolis and after the ouster of former Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, may be eroded by these repeated instances of ICE involved shootings. So, there is concern on that front again after, of course, what happened in January and after the secretary, Secretary Mullin came in and tried to keep ICE out of the headlines, wanting to take a more quiet approach.

And so, what we are seeing now is that these vehicle stops, that ICE is repeatedly doing, and doing in a way they didn't do before, is ending in these deadly scenarios. And now the question is, what's going to happen next? The department says the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general is investigating this, but certainly those within the department, those outside of the department are trying to understand what happened here that would have led the officer to shoot, because based off of what the department has publicly said, they just can't see the justification.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

Priscilla, thank you so much. That -- your clarity on this is really important. Thank you very, very much.

John.

BERMAN: That's really interesting. New information there.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

BERMAN: All right, breaking this morning, the biggest single day jump in oil prices in six years. Why? Well, new explosions reported in Iran as the U.S. and Tehran trade strikes for a third straight night. At 4 p.m. Eastern today, the United States says it will resume its naval blockade of ships going to and from Iranian ports. President Trump says the U.S. will become the guardian of the Strait of Hormuz. He also announced plans to implement a toll, charging 20 percent of the value of cargo on ships as a reimbursement to the United States. That is in direct contradiction to things that his vice president, the secretary of state, the secretary of defense, the secretary of the treasury have all said.

Let's get to CNN's Betsy Klein at the White House for the latest on what you're seeing this morning.

Betsy.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, the White House clearly watching those gas prices very, very closely with no signs of de-escalation for this conflict. The U.S. launching a third consecutive night of strikes across Iran, Iran responding in kind with attacks across gulf states.

But the Strait of Hormuz, that critical oil thoroughfare, continues to be the main point of contention here. Prior to this conflict, no one had full authority over this waterway. Iran now using it as a key point of leverage as President Trump announces that he will reimpose that blockade on all ships traversing to and from Iranian ports. He also says that there will be a 20 percent fee for all commercial vessels going through the Strait that he says is for the U.S. provided security in that very dangerous area.

Now, officials have previously said that it's really unclear if this can work. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has flat out questioned whether this comports with international law. President Trump himself had previously said that it's an international waterway, and he didn't want tolls.

But as we think about a path forward to this conflict, I just want to draw your attention to recent comments from President Trump about this memorandum of understanding.

[09:10:03]

That is that now defunct peace agreement signed just about a month ago. When he signed that agreement, the president touted it. He said that it was an agreement that achieves everything he set out to accomplish. He pointed to Iran never having a nuclear weapon. The Strait of Hormuz being open, as well as ending this conflict.

But listen to what he said about that memorandum of understanding just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It didn't -- look, memorandum of understanding when you're -- when you're dealing with sleazebags don't mean much. And they don't mean much when you're dealing with honorable people, too, because it's a memorandum of understanding. It doesn't mean much.

And I said, why are we even, you know, it's a standard tactic in the U.S. that you go to a memorandum of understanding and then you go to the deal. I said, just go to the deal first. But you know what? It was sort of a test. And they weren't there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: Those comments raising major questions about the strategy going forward. And all of this comes as President Trump has formally notified Congress that the U.S. military has resumed action against Iran. He says that that action will be limited.

BERMAN: We will see.

Betsy Klein, thank you for that update from the White House this morning. Appreciate it.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk about it more. Joining me right now is Democratic Congressman Ami Bera of California. He serves on the House Foreign Affairs and Intelligence Committees. It's good to see you, Congressman.

REP. AMI BERA (D-CA): Good to see you.

BOLDUAN: You know, I had -- former Navy Admiral James Stavridis was just on with us earlier. And he said -- according -- his assessment of kind of where things stand is, the U.S. is now closer to a forever war with Iran than to a ceasefire. Where do you think -- where are things in your view today?

BERA: I mean, I'd agree with that assessment. The fact that this was always going to be a tough deal to get the Strait open again, to try to find some sort of ceasefire and stability, you know, Iran's stronger today than it was in January prior to this conflict. President Trump does not have a strategy. He needs to come to Congress. We need to come up with a long-term solution. We need to bring in our European and Asian allies, along with our Arab partners, and negotiate what could be, again, a ceasefire and then a longer term deal.

BOLDUAN: The president also wants to charge 20 percent on all commercial shipping traffic now through the Strait as a toll for, he says, providing security for passage through that waterway now. Put aside the fact that that does directly contradict the long held position of the U.S. government and recent -- and the recent stated position of his secretary of state, his VP and his treasury secretary. Putting that aside, do you think he can actually pull this off?

BERA: No, he can't. Again, President Trump doesn't have a strategy here. He's making it up on the fly. That is a very dangerous situation. He says one thing one day and something totally different the next day. It's time for adults in Congress to get together, Democrats and Republicans, along with serious foreign policy military strategists, and come up with a long term strategy and execute this with our allies.

Again, President Trump doesn't know what he's doing right now. He's making it up. And it is sending really bad signals to the rest of the world.

BOLDUAN: You do not like that he got in this war. You do not like how he -- his you say lack of strategy in conducting this war. But what deal would you make with Iran right now at this point?

BERA: I mean the first thing I would do is I would try to get to a ceasefire. The next thing I would do is I would bring in the Arab nations to be partners in this. I would bring in the Europeans --

BOLDUAN: All right, but if that -- if that -- if that -- if that is conceding that Iran will now have full control or some control over the Strait of Hormuz going forward, is that a deal you would make?

BERA: No, we can't see -- these are international waterways. I don't support Iran putting tolls on ships that are going through there. And certainly not the United States of America. That's not who we are. Again, it took us years to negotiate the JCPOA, the nuclear deal that

we did with President Obama. This is going to be a long-term prospect. And again, can't relitigate how we got here. I don't -- did not support this action, but we are where we are, and we've got to figure out how to get out of this.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

I want to ask you about Ukraine. In light of Lindsey Graham's sudden death, Senator Richard Blumenthal is redoubling his efforts now to push through the crippling sanctions against Russia that he had been working -- long working on with Senator Graham. Blumenthal thinks that they have buy-in finally, real buy-in from the president. Let me play what he says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CA): We all did good because the White House has given us the green light. And now I'm more hopeful than ever we will pass this sanctions bill, which narrowly targets the major purchasers of Russian oil and gas and has the potential for bringing Putin to the table because it will stop the revenue sources that fuel his war machine.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:15:04]

BOLDUAN: It's been a long roller coaster with this sanctions package. Do you actually think it's going to happen now?

BERA: You know, I think there's a real possibility. You know, we all mourn the loss of Senator Hraham, who was a staunch ally of Ukraine and, you know, supporting the actions against Russia. I think in his honor, we should get this passed. There is a real possibility now that Ukraine has taken the war to Russia, the Russian people are really feeling the pain of this war. Can we get to the negotiating table and try to get something longer term, in terms of a resolution here? I do think the sanctions are the right thing to do.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

I want to ask you, the president is talking about giving -- is gearing up now for what he's calling a major -- they're -- he and the White House are calling a major address to the nation on Thursday evening. Reuters is reporting that the speech could revisit the president's unfounded false 2020 election fraud claims, and reporting that it's about newly declassified intelligence on investigations into U.S. elections, and that the White House -- and what the White House says are voting machine vulnerabilities. This is some of the reporting coming from Reuters now. Do you know what this speech is about?

BERA: I have no idea what he's going to say. Again, the president's been acting erratically. You know, certainly he wants to relitigate the election that he lost in 2020. He knows he's in trouble in these coming midterms, that if we do get the majority, we will actually hold him accountable. We will look at the corruption, the actions that the Trump family has taken, and try to get Congress functioning again, back to something that's more normal and a separation of powers. Again, the president's desperate here. He is going to try to steal this election. You saw what he did with the election commission. And I expect his actions to get worse and worse and more erratic as we get closer to November.

BOLDUAN: You think -- you think he is going to try -- where do you think -- why do you think he is going to try -- where is the evidence you have that you think he is going to steal this election?

BERA: I mean look at what he's doing. He took a -- took apart and disbanded the election commission. He's continued to speak publicly about how our election integrity is not sound. You know, we've had multiple investigations into the 2020 election. That was probably one of the safest and most legal elections that we've had. And repeatedly, as you've had various audits, you know, there's very little election fraud in this country. Now, again, you -- I listened to the words of the president and I take him at face value.

BOLDUAN: Congressman, thank you for your time. I appreciate you coming in.

John.

BERMAN: All right, the great national draining of the great Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool. Drained again for new repairs after the first didn't really go as planned.

Millions in the path of dangerous summer storms, record heat, torrential rain, and the potential for major flooding.

And the U.S. men's national team star, who was at the center of the whole red card controversy in reversal, speaks out this morning on how that all played into the really bad U.S. loss to Belgium.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:22:17]

BOLDUAN: Dangerous summer storms are in the forecast across several parts of the country that we are tracking. In the northeast, nearly two million people are in the path of a storm that's threatening to bring even possible tornadoes. In Texas, a whole summers worth of rain could fall this week.

CNN's Derek Van Dam is watching it all for us. Quite a forecast, Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, very busy.

Let's get right to the most immediate threat. We've got a smattering of flash flood warnings right now across the Texas hill country and into the Edwards Plateau. You can just see how busy the radar is, stretching from New Orleans all the way to San Antonio and beyond. The I-10 corridor here is extremely busy with heavy rainfall that has accumulated in some locations according to the National Weather Service and our radar estimates over a foot. This is Uvalde County. We're going to monitor this for the potential of flash flooding. You can see the accumulations there and the Weather Service already prompting those considerable tag flash flood warnings just west of San Antonio and again across parts of the hill country and the Edwards Plateau.

This is a multi-day flash flood threat that will unfold over the next three to four days as just significant amounts of moisture stream in. Look at this. This is radar -- or excuse me, forecast rainfall. And that shading of white there is 20 inches or more. We've already seen 12 inches in some locations. So, this is very possible. That's off the charts.

And it's all being fueled by this heat dome. A lot of circulation around this pulling in moisture from the gulf, but also triggering showers and thunderstorms across the northeastern parts of the country. Heads up. If you live in Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, you could likely see strong winds, even an isolated, strong tornado later this afternoon and evening as the storm prediction center has issued a level three of four. This is an enhanced risk of severe storms across an area, northern New England, that doesn't typically see this type of weather.

Look at the heat that's being funneled and pumped into the northeast as well. Temperatures here in New York City will be flirting with the 100-degree mark. If it gets to 100 at JFK, this will be the fourth time this year. That's never occurred before.

And we want to give you a little bit of a heads up. We've got millions of Americans under heat alerts now, but we have wildfires that erupted in size yesterday near the border of Canada and the U.S. Here's Minnesota. Here's Ontario. Here's the wildfires.

But look at the smoke that's emanating from them. Already hazy skies starting to filter in across the I-95 corridor. Northern New England. And the near term smoke forecast, unfortunately, Kate, has that spreading into New York City. Could see that orange skies. The summer of smoke once again.

BOLDUAN: Yes. I mean just look -- and look at the spread of that.

[09:25:01]

I mean that's a huge part of the country that has -- when it starts pushing down. Wow.

VAN DAM: It really is.

BOLDUAN: Derek, thank you so much for tracking all of it. It is quite a lot that we're tracking right now when it comes to weather.

Ahead for us, trying to manipulate the judicial process. That is just part of the scathing rebuke coming from a federal judge over President Trump's lawsuit and settlement with the IRS. Now, attorneys involved are facing sanctions.

And a rare scene unfolds on Capitol Hill today. Two Supreme Court justices are set to testify before lawmakers. Why they are requesting nearly $1 billion for security.

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