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Life-Threatening Flooding in Texas; United Cajun Navy Chief Meteorologist Amy Metz is Interviewed about Texas Flooding; Investigation into White House Leaks; Trump to Address Nation Tonight; A Texas District Attorney Sean Teare is Interviewed about ICE Shooting. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired July 16, 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]

RABBI JEFFREY MYERS, TREE OF LIFE CONGREGATION: Don't pause for a moment to think, how is this impacting all of our electorate and the people that we serve and are there far more pressing issues to focus on than just regularly having Israel in the news. Not any other country in the world. Israel is always focused on the news. And it just makes me begin to wonder, there are foundational issues here that have nothing per se to do with Israel.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Rabbi Jeffrey Myers, thank you for all of your help over the years. Thank you for everything given to your community. You have one very lucky granddaughter. You can be America's grandfather now in addition to being America's rabbi. So, congratulations to you, sir.

A brand new hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: All right, breaking this morning, life threatening floods hitting south Texas as we speak. All of it happening in the same area where the deadly Camp Mystic floods hit last year and 100 people -- more than 100 were killed. Guadalupe River rising right now more than 25 feet in an hour. We'll have coverage of that in just a bit.

Also, a CNN exclusive. The White House is stepping efforts up to track down the leaker behind a story about security concerns of the new Air Force One that was, as you remember, gifted to President Trump by Qatar.

And hours from now, President Trump will deliver a rare prime time address. He says it will include really big news. But Republicans are worried it will just be about grievances and rehashing old information about the 2020 election.

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we are watching breaking news unfold in Texas. A dire flooding threat unfolding in many -- in parts of that state right now, described as a life-threatening flooding event. Water rescues are already underway. The rain has been relentless. The totals in the forecast really terrifying. Up to 20 inches of rain has soaked the region so far. It's not over.

The Guadalupe River has risen more than 25 feet in one hour, cresting higher than its peak at the deadly flood -- after the -- during the deadly flooding in July of last year when more than 100 people were killed in that tragedy.

And the National Weather Service is now warning that a large and deadly flood wave, as they describe it, is making its way downstream.

The city of Kerrville, in Kerr County, is urging people to shelter in place immediately.

I want to play for you what one person who lives there says.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I live on a tributary to Goat Creek (ph). And it must have come through there really hard last night and moved -- it took out a fence with a rock wall and my concrete furniture was just destroyed and pushed down the river.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Let's get to CNN's Derek Van Dam for the very latest.

And it has been changing hour by hour. Derek, what are you seeing?

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Kate, I'm going to show you what the National Weather Service is talking about with this large and deadly flood wave that's moving downstream across the Guadalupe River, kind of highlight some river gauges in just a moment. But to put it into geographical context for you, here is the Guadalupe River. Remember, we're over west Texas, the hill country, southern Edwards Plateau, Highway 90 over here. And we're going to zoom in on this area.

Obviously, the radar has been lighting up with heavy rainfall. But as we focus in, into Kerr County, here, again, that shading of blue, this is the Guadalupe River. And I'll follow it from Comfort to Kerrville. And we recall what happened last year at Camp Mystic, that is north and west of Kerrville. But at the moment, this dangerous wall of water is cresting downstream near Comfort and further downstream from there.

What's triggering this deadly wall of water? Well, it's rainfall rates at five inches per hour that have been falling across this area. And when you look at the rainfall just since midnight last night, it's accumulated over a foot in some locations. It's not just Kerr County. Look at Uvalde. You can see some of those bulls-eyes there. And then going back towards when the rain began, which was Monday, we have accumulated nearly two feet of rainfall.

So, now we're going to break down some river gauges because these are critical moments right now on the Guadalupe River, where this deadly wall of water is going. Now, we've seen a rapid rise of water at the river gauge near Comfort, 25 feet in one hour's time. That's the deadly wall of water that will obliterate anything in its path. To put it into perspective, there's Kerrville at moderate flood stage. Comfort, that's the major flood stage. And I want to show you, upstream, near Kerrville, we think of Camp Mystic.

[09:05:01]

That area seems to be leveling off. But there is repeated rounds of rain still incoming. We could get another 10 to 15 inches on top of what's already fallen.

Kate, it's a dire situation.

BOLDUAN: Another 10 to 15 on what they've already got, my goodness. OK, Derek, thank you so much.

John.

BERMAN: The numbers there are staggering. Five inches of rain per hour. Two feet of rain already.

With us now is United Cajun Navy Chief Meteorologist Amy Metz. She is joining us from Kerrville, Texas.

Amy, I know you've been up all night following this storm and following the river. You're right on the Guadalupe right now. Just tell us what you're seeing.

AMY METZ, CHIEF METEOROLOGIST, UNITED CAJUN NAVY: Hi.

Well, we have some roads that have buckled on the way to Ingram from here, which would be on the road to Camp Mystic. We've actually -- and I have an emergency alert coming on the phone. So, in case that froze.

Now, what is happening is that the road's completely undermined. What you see behind me, there is -- there's some rocks here. That's what's sitting underneath the concrete. And so, there's probably about a 25 foot gap of just nothing but concrete on top of each other. So, we did see (AUDIO GAP) helped us go ahead and make sure they could step in the holes. Let people know as they were trying to drive through. And these are people that were repairing power lines and doing some search and rescue. So, we made sure that they were able to get in and out of there and have the winch, you know, just on standby just in case.

But there's been a lot of debris, a lot of cars that have crashed. Even some of the emergency responders' vehicles are on the sides of the roads here and crashed along the riverside. You see so much debris behind me.

BERMAN: What's your area of biggest concern right now? What are you most concerned about?

METZ: I seem to have lost the audio. BERMAN: Amy, can you still -- can you still hear me? This is what five inches of rain per hour will do. It does mess with electronics. Two feet of rain total now.

Amy Metz, can you hear me right now? Amy?

All right, we seem to have lost Amy Metz, who's in the rain right now as it just comes down in parts of Texas again. Serious flood concerns, cresting 25 feet above flood stage in some places. Amy Metz, it's John Berman again. Can you hear me?

METZ: Got me. Got me.

BERMAN: Amy, can you hear me?

METZ: It is not --

BERMAN: OK, we'll come back to Amy. We'll get the communications up and running in a bit.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, we will get back to that. Obviously, a really dire situation going on there in Texas, in the same area where we saw the horrible consequences of those floods in Mystic.

All right, let's get to this.

President Trump pretty upset, demanding a full court press from the White House to find out who leaked information about the security deficiencies of the new Qatari gifted Air Force One. CNN has learned chief of staff Susie Wiles and FBI Director Kash Patel are leading the initial probe from what some are calling their own White House war room. And they've asked some officials to turn over their cell phones to be searched as part of the probe.

The investigation began after "The New York Times" reported on why the president flew the old Air Force One home instead of the new one last week when he left the NATO Summit in Turkey. Four of those reporters have since received a subpoena for doing their jobs.

CNN's Holmes Lybrand is following all of this.

Give us some sense of what is happening now as they are going forward with this investigation. There have to be some nerves in the White House as they're asking for some people to hand over their cell phones to see if they're the leaker.

HOLMES LYBRAND, CNN REPORTER: That's right. And last Friday, Patel was actually called. He was scheduled for a trip to Chicago. He was called to the White House on Friday where that war room was set up right next to White House chief -- White House -- yes, Susie Wiles, apologies. That war room established to start that investigation in earnest, where those phones were being reviewed and interviews were happening.

Now, several officials did not actually turn over their phones. And we know that the officials that are being interviewed that were -- that were being asked for their phones, they were involved in either the planning or they were directly on the trip with Trump to Turkey.

So, again, quite a move for the director of the FBI to be so intricately involved in such an investigation.

And another interesting component is how agencies, outside agencies actually emailed their staff, warning them that if other agencies were to contact them, they needed to contact their agency's attorneys immediately.

So, again, we're still following this. But, yes, this is a very, very extensive leak investigation that we're seeing -- and -- that we're seeing that -- the fact that FBI Director Kash Patel was even involved to this extent.

[09:10:09]

SIDNER: Yes, I mean, it's quite fascinating when you consider that there was a lot of reporting before this about how quickly this new plane was kind of put into service and that there could be some security concerns. And now there's this big investigation on who said there were -- there were security concerns. I mean people could see that he was using a different plane, going back to the old one.

Do you have any sense of how people are feeling inside the White House and around this apparatus right now?

LYBRAND: That's right. Sources I spoke with were a bit confused at this level of leak investigation, seeing as how that it was widely known that this Qatari-donated jet was retrofitted very quickly with defense capabilities and that the older jets were still going to be relied on for those international travels that were potentially in more dangerous or more hot spot areas abroad.

SIDNER: Holmes Lybrand, great reporting from you. Thank you so much. Do appreciate it. Live for us from Washington.

John.

BERMAN: All right, with us now, CNN's senior legal analyst, former assistant U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Elie Honig.

Counselor, great to see you this morning.

So, there are a few things going on with this leak investigation. I actually want to start with the other side of it, which is the fact that the White House, or the FBI, I should say, immediately went after the reporters who reported on this. "The New York Times" is trying to block those subpoenas. Just talk to me briefly about how much success the FBI will have in getting at the reporters who put this information out there.

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, John, there is no blanket across the board privilege for communications between reporters and their sources. And we know that because that direct question was raised a long time ago, in 1972, to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled back then, 5-4, there is no privilege for those communications the way there would be, for example, between an attorney and a client, or in some instances a doctor and a patient.

That said, it is not open season for DOJ and the FBI to subpoena reporters. There are cases, and there's DOJ's own internal guidance that says that kind of subpoena should be an "extraordinary measure," that's a quote, used as a, quote, "last resort only if necessary for an urgent national security measure."

And so, I would expect this case with "The New York Times" to go to court. And I think they're going to litigate whether those criteria have been met.

BERMAN: And I should note that the facts in this case seem to directly contradict what the president was saying publicly about it. That may not matter legally, but it might matter in terms of what the public deserves to hear.

Now, there's a different legal situation for the people being asked to turn over their phones inside the White House. Explain that, Elie.

HONIG: Yes, the law is very different. So, when you are given an official government cell phone, you are told at that point, this is government property and your communications on this are essentially government property as well. So, there's really no legal protection. There's no way some White House staffer can go to a court and say, the White House can't take my government phone.

And I should note this again, there's First Amendment concerns, and White Houses ought to be cognizant of that. They ought to be careful when they seek phones and go through communications. There's privacy interest. But there's very little legally that can prevent that. And this has been done by prior administrations, collecting those phones internally and seeing what's on them.

So, yes, does it -- is there some tension there with the First Amendment? Yes. But there's a different legal regime.

BERMAN: Very quickly, Elie, you've been watching the Todd Blanche hearings yesterday and again today. I want to turn to the last page in the chapter, if I can, and ask you, you know, what if somehow he doesn't get through the Judiciary Committee, what if this confirmation fails, what then happens to Todd Blanche?

HONIG: Yes, it's going to be very close, it looks like, on the vote. But even if Blanche does not get through, even if he's voted down, there is a way that the president can keep him in as acting attorney general for a long time. The law says ordinarily you can only be the acting for 210 days. However, if there's a nomination pending, so if he were to be rejected and then renominated, he can be held as the acting attorney general for as long as necessary. So, there's a chance, even if Blanche gets voted down, if the president and the Senate are willing to play along, they can install him as acting really for the rest of the term that Donald Trump has left in office. BERMAN: Interesting to know as we watch this.

Elie Honig, great to see you this morning. Thank you very much.

HONIG: Thanks, John.

BERMAN: Sara.

SIDNER: All right, thanks, gentlemen.

All right, President Trump saying our country has to shape up and is promising big news in his primetime address from the White House tonight. The president said earlier he would focus part of his speech at least on free and fair elections. Two sources tell CNN he's expected to talk about voting machine security and the alleged efforts by foreign countries to influence U.S. elections.

With me now is CNN political analyst and White House reporter at the Associated Press, Seung Min Kim.

Thank you so much for being here.

Look, the president is saying our country needs to shape up. He's also promising there's going to be really big news. Those are his words. Any idea what that might be or what it might be connected to?

[09:15:04]

SEUNG MIN KIM, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, we know, generally speaking, that his speech tonight is going to be focused on the issue of elections and voting. And the White House has been very hesitant to give specific, concrete details about what his address will entail. You know, Karoline Leavitt, the press secretary, does have a briefing later this afternoon. Perhaps we'll get more of a preview there.

But we know that this is an issue that the president continues to fixate on, and that in whatever topic that he may be speaking at any given point during the day, whether it's war, the economy, health care, it so often goes back to the topic of elections and voting in the 2020 elections. He continues to -- he continues to say, wrongly, that he won the 2020 election against Joe Biden. We all know, your viewers -- our viewers know that he did not. And this -- and that view and that insistence that he did not lose really is pervasive throughout his administration in terms of what his, you know, nominees are saying at confirmation hearings, what policies they are pursuing.

So, we expect that kind of general theme to happen tonight. In terms of the details, of course, we'll all be asking and watching.

SIDNER: Are you expecting kind of a grievance fest about 2020 or are you expecting there to be a lot of different things spoken about, for example, the war in Iran, the economy that people are extremely concerned about?

KIM: I mean certainly Republicans would like for him to speak on other issues than perhaps the 2020 election. Now, we know, again, the general theme of the speech tonight will be on elections. In terms of what he will get to specifically, and that we're still obviously talking to the White House and working our sources to figure out what his message will be.

But there is a lot of consternation among Republicans about what he will, you know, what he will say tonight and what he chooses to focus his energy on. I thought Senate Majority Leader John Thune, obviously the top Republican in the Senate, I thought his comments yesterday when he was asked about the speech was kind of instructive. You know, he doesn't know what he's going to -- he doesn't know what the president's going to talk about either. But Senator Thune said, you know, I am focused on the 2026 election, and I think most of my colleagues are here too. That's what Republicans want. Republicans want President Trump to really look forward to November, look at, you know, you talk more about affordability issues, talk about efforts to make the economy better for voters, to talk about their accomplishment. They don't want to be out there relitigating the 2020 election. But this is something that's very important to President Trump. And that is not going to change anytime soon.

SIDNER: We will see what he does in the address tonight. Seung Min Kim, it is a pleasure. Thank you so much for all your good reporting.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: We have new details coming in on that fatal ICE shooting in Houston. The FBI search warrant that has now revealed what they say they found in the van. Supporters of the man who was killed are outraged by what they now call a smear campaign.

And why Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has major concerns about testosterone deficiency in the military.

Plus, Flavor Flav making good on a promise to honor the women of the U.S. Olympic team. Do you remember this? So, what is about to happen as the "She Weekend" celebration in Vegas begins.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:21:22]

BERMAN: All right, we do have breaking news. We have drone video which we want to show you here, which can show -- is showing emergency crews rescuing a family in Kerrville, Texas, from their home. They're putting children onto a boat there. A storm chaser spoke to a family member who said that they were woken up at 2 a.m., and that the water rose almost all the way up into the attic. I can't make out what's happening in this video, sadly. But you can see here what's happening, being taken to safety. The father said they were in the attic for about two and a half hours before they were rescued. This is what they said about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBERT SHELTON, RESCUED FROM FLOOD: Woke us up at about, what, two?

AVA SHELTON, RESCUED FROM FLOOD: Two in the morning the first time, and y'all went back to sleep. And my friend --

R. SHELTON: And I got up --

A. SHELTON: My friend called me. Her front yard's flooded. Me and Elena (ph) looked out at the back. Lightning flashed. Our creek was insane. I woke up dad. Two trash cans passed by my window. Bam, the window broke open. Water was everywhere.

R. SHELTON: And then --

A. SHELTON: Mand Elena panicked and we --

R. SHELTON: I got out and the whole kitchen was flooded and within a blink of an eye it was already waist level. And then the door broke open and more water came rushing in. And so, we went to the attic.

A. SHELTON: And we were trying to get to the attic gate (ph) and then, bam.

R. SHELTON: And then we sat there from about, I'd say four -- about 3:30-ish to -- or actually two, 3:00-ish to now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Wow. what a story that is.

We have Amy Metz on the phone with us. She's a meteorologist for the Cajun Navy, who is on the banks of the Guadalupe River in Kerrville right now.

Amy, if you can hear me, what are you most concerned about right now?

AMY METZ, CHIEF METEOROLOGIST, UNITED CAJUN NAVY: Truly, it's the prolonged effects. What's coming next. We have a moderate rain falling right now. But as mentioned earlier in the show, there's -- there could be another ten inches of rain. There could be another 15 inches of rain, especially on those higher peaks, like what you see behind me in the hill country.

So, knowing that this water is already this high and our teams are, you know, helping the volunteer fire department here in Center Point with the search and rescue, just thinking about how busy they already are, what might be coming next is very concerning.

BERMAN: And, you know, we've heard some reports, and we just heard sound of a water rescue there. Any sense of how many people might be trapped right now?

METZ: The last bits that I was getting, it seemed like a lot of people, at least those that were able to call in, had been rescued at least within an hour or so. And I'm kind of assuming that there's some people that can't get the -- I know they couldn't get to some people. They were able to say that they got to higher ground. So, there could very well be at least a few dozen people who are waiting for some rescues as we speak.

BERMAN: And how much more time do you think we'll be in this danger zone?

METZ: Really, it's going to, I think, through the end of Friday. So, I've been telling people as a meteorologist for Cajun Navy, we're looking at about another 36 hours of this just kind of circulating over. And it's not just the rain, John. There's also tornadoes that have been one after another this morning. And that activity, we can see some of the swirling in the clouds. That's absolutely going to be something that we need to be watching for also right here over the next probably five to six hours.

BERMAN: So, 36 hours. Again, we just saw those tornado warnings also, adding insult to injury. Just so much danger right now.

Amy Metz, you stay safe. Thank you for giving us that update. Appreciate it.

Sara.

SIDNER: All right, also in Texas this morning, there's a lot of questions around the investigation into the fatal shooting of a 52- year-old husband and father during a traffic stop in Houston.

[09:25:05]

Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a Mexican national, was shot and killed by an ICE agent last Tuesday. Now, in a newly unsealed search warrant, the FBI says it believes that there were some illegal drugs potentially inside the van Salgado Araujo was driving when he was stopped and killed. Worth noting, the drugs were not the reason the van was being chased. Supporters of the family say the drug allegation reeks of a cover up and a smear campaign.

Kate.

BOLDUAN: Joining us right now is Sean Teare. He is the Harris County, Texas, district attorney, for much more on -- the very latest.

It's good to have you here. I really appreciate it.

We also learned that the governor, just yesterday, confirmed that the Texas Rangers are also now going to be conducting their own investigation. What is the Texas Rangers coming in now mean?

SEAN TEARE, DISTRICT ATTORNEY, HARRIS COUNTY, TEXAS: Thank you for having me.

It really is -- we're getting to a sense of normalcy. We investigate every officer involved shooting independently, regardless of the agency or whether they're state, local or federal. The D.A.'s office investigates it independently. And typically, we do that alongside the Texas Rangers.

So, they're about eight days late, but it's really nice to have them back in the fold for us to go down this road and really get to the truth. BOLDUAN: On the FBI search warrant application, and what they say they

found in the van, did investigators -- did your investigators observe federal -- observe the feds executing the search warrant on the van, or did your investigators get access after the fact?

TEARE: We were -- we were present as observers for the execution of the search warrant yesterday. A couple of things about that search warrant, though.

BOLDUAN: Yes.

TEARE: We -- based on the information we have regarding who Mr. Salgado was, and just eyeballing the evidence as it was collected yesterday, we don't believe that they are drugs. All that to be said.

This -- the fact that this search warrant was unsealed by the federal government is truly unique in my 20 years of doing this. That is not something that we see the FBI or any federal agency do, especially prior to any presentation of a grand jury. To unseal this warrant is really something that I think the U.S. attorney and the FBI need to explain to the public, because this is not something that typically happens.

BOLDUAN: This is important. You say you do not believe these to be drugs.

TEARE: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Do you know what the substance is in these plastic baggies? Tell me more why you do not believe they're drugs.

TEARE: Well, we have information that we're not going to release yet. But my understanding is that this substance is being tested by the FBI, either today or in the next few days. And I think it is in -- it's so important to the public that those results be shared immediately. If they're going to share the probable cause for a search warrant, they need to share the results as quickly as they get them. Again, we don't believe that there are drugs in that car.

BOLDUAN: Do you think the presence --

TEARE: And I just want to be very clear --

BOLDUAN: Please, go ahead.

TEARE: It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter whether or not there were drugs.

BOLDUAN: That was my next question. Do you think -- do you think this is relevant to a death investigation?

TEARE: Absolutely not. It has no bearing on why Mr. Salgado and the other three individuals were targeted. It has no bearing whatsoever on whether or not the use (AUDIO GAP) Salgado was justified. This is -- this is a red herring that really has no bearing on a death investigation. BOLDUAN: Have you learned anything about the ICE agent who shot Mr.

Salgado Araujo?

TEARE: We certainly haven't learned anything through official channels. We have yet to be in contact with the Department of Homeland Security, Office of Inspector General, who is apparently conducting the shooting investigation. We have not heard anything about the identity of the agent that shot Mr. Salgado. And, quite frankly, we haven't even heard whether or not the person has given a statement to any law enforcement about the shooting. And we're nine days in. That's just -- it's so grossly incompetent and unacceptable.

[09:29:57]

BOLDUAN: Let me then ask you, do you think that the federal investigation is looking at the agent's actions in the shooting or just at Mr. Salgado Araujo?