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White House Holds Briefing Ahead of Trump's Speech; Air Quality in U.S. Cities Hazardous From Canadian Wildfire Smoke; Trump Reviewing Military Options in Iran; Blanche Makes Surprise Visit to Capitol Hill. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired July 16, 2026 - 13:30   ET

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

[13:30:00]

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We look forward to the final match on Sunday, and I know the president looks forward to attending, but I think the world saw that this president and this country is able to put on the greatest show in sports in the world, and we are kind people. We are hard-working people, and we have the best country on the planet.

And I know -- I've loved seeing the videos from foreigners from around the world who have traveled to the United States and I've been quite surprised about how lovely and enjoyable the United States is. I don't think we get enough credit from the international media around the world, but we encourage everyone to come and experience America for themselves.

So thanks for being here. And safe travels home. You're welcome.

Garrett?

GARRETT HAAKE, SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, NBC NEWS and MSNBC: Karoline, welcome back.

LEAVITT: Good to see you.

HAAKE: Likewise. To the degree that this speech tonight is about elections past, not elections upcoming. The 2020 election has had dozens of recounts, lawsuits, audits, 2024 election, widely believed to be safe and secure.

There's not really any question about that. A lot of people --

(CROSSTALK)

LEAVITT: -- because it was too big to bring.

HAAKE: Well, I think a lot of people look at this --

LEAVITT: There's a massive amount of votes for this president. That's why he's in the Oval Office right now.

HAAKE: No one disputes that. And there were a significant amount of votes for Joe Biden who won in 2020. I think the question is, why is the president unable to let this go?

LEAVITT: Well, first of all, Garrett, I think part of the problem is that the media has refused to acknowledge that tens of millions of Americans across the country share the concerns of this president about the sanctity of our elections. And your premise of your question, you're jumping ahead to a conclusion in this speech before even hearing it yourself.

I think that everyone should tune in tonight, including the people in this room, and you should report on the president's speech and the findings that he is going to reveal in this speech with a little bit of honesty and a little bit of integrity because it does -- it will shock you if you have an honest eye listening to the president tonight and everything he is saying will be backed by facts and by evidence that will be provided this evening.

And again, Garrett, again, I think all Americans, Democrat, Republican should agree that we are the greatest country in the history of the world. We should have the safest and most secure elections in the history of the world. And what the president will be speaking about tonight will show you that perhaps that is not the case.

And we need to make some adjustments moving forward, including the SAVE America Act, as Rachel (ph) pointed out, is a key legislative priority for this president on Capitol Hill. And he wants to see all Senators and members of Congress voting in favor of the SAVE America Act because it's crucially important as we move forward.

Ayesha (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hi, Karoline. Welcome back.

LEAVITT: Thank you.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Karoline Leavitt previewing the president's comments tonight, making it clear that it appears he may be casting doubt on the security of the state of American elections not long before the midterm election. She says that what he's going to say will be backed by facts and evidence that he will provide tonight.

Certainly, we will be checking that with facts and evidence as well. And we'll be right back with more news.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:37:12]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": The extreme heat and wildfires in Canada are creating a dangerous air quality situation across the Northeast and Midwest. This is the scene today in Chicago. I mean, you can barely see much. Smoke and haze virtually wiping out the skyline here. And it looks like this in a lot of other cities too. Millions under air quality alerts.

So I want to bring in Stephanie Hengesbach. She's a Meteorology Specialist in the Air Quality Division of the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy. So thank you for taking the time.

Can we just start with, tell us about the current air quality across the state of Michigan. Are there certain areas worse than others there?

STEPHANIE HENGESBACH, METEOROLOGY SPECIALIST, MICHIGAN DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT: Yes, as a matter of fact, there are certain areas that are worse. We currently have the worst air quality across the Upper Peninsula.

Our Marquette monitors and another monitor in the more eastern portion of the Upper Peninsula, they currently have eight hour averages of fine particulate matter due to the wildfire smoke that are roughly 500 micrograms per cubic meter. That's the unit it's measured in. And that is above the AQI scale of hazardous.

It doesn't even reach the scale. It's well above that. And it kind of arches across the state. The highest levels we're currently seeing are in the Upper Peninsula. And it kind of arches down across the eastern portion of the state and then in the southeast as well as seeing the highest numbers. However, for the AQI scale across our entire state, we are seeing concentrations of fine particulate matter in that hazardous AQI range. So it is very, very thick out there.

JIMENEZ: And as you've been talking, I don't know if you can see it, but we've got a map up sort of showing where the air quality --

HENGESBACH: Yeah.

JIMENEZ: -- levels are across the region you were just talking about, Midwest and beyond. How long do you expect this poor air quality could last in Michigan? What are you preparing for?

HENGESBACH: Well, this morning, we extended our air quality alert. That's what we issue here when we expect poor air quality. We extended that through the day tomorrow. We do expect levels to potentially be in the hazardous range again tomorrow across our state.

You know, we're looking at maps. This is something that is kind of a day-to-day thing we're looking at. Smoke maps does show a potential for an improvement late maybe Friday, early Saturday. But we're not quite hanging our hat on that yet because we do think if it does improve, it would be short-lived.

Fortunately, we get into southwest wind flow for a short period of time, late Friday, early Saturday. But then smoke models show the next plume coming down because we do get right back into a northwest flow pattern early next week. And that's just going to continue to bring more plumes of smoke down.

[13:40:00]

And even if there is some improvement, it would be across the southern portion of the state, more of the southwestern. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like our upper peninsula, upper Michigan, is really going to see much of an improvement, really, even for Saturday potentially and beyond. So it is something that we are taking day by day to let the public know what to expect.

JIMENEZ: Yeah, you know, for folks who are watching and seeing the images that we've been showing from cities across the country where you can't really see the skylines and it looks orange, orange haze outside. You know, I think a lot of people think about a few years ago when that Canadian wildfire activity made a lot of cities look exactly like we're looking at now. Again, that orange haze, low visibility.

How would you compare what we're seeing now to what we saw back in 2023 in many of these same cities?

HENGESBACH: You know, we've been asked that question a lot the past day or so, and we did look into that. And currently, our levels we're seeing right now are higher than what we saw. We had two different years.

2023 was the first time we really were affected by a Canadian wildfire smoke, and levels were very high at a couple of different episodes in '23. And then we had some more episodes last year in 2025. But this one so far is playing out to be well above those hourly concentrations that we saw back in '23 and in '25, unfortunately.

JIMENEZ: Wow.

HENGESBACH: And that's really likely because the fires are closer to us. They're just northwest of Lake Superior, you know, north of Minnesota, not far into Ontario. And really, it was roughly, I think it was like 12th or 13th of July that they just kind of just developed really quickly.

JIMENEZ: Yeah.

HENGESBACH: And those plumes, you can still see that satellite imagery, which you may have shown that are just -- they're pumping out massive amounts of smoke from those fires.

JIMENEZ: Yeah.

HENGESBACH: And unfortunately, we get a northwest wind flow until these fires are out, those plumes are going to keep coming down into our regions. Like I said, it's something we're keeping an eye on every morning, and we're updating our forecast based on what we see.

JIMENEZ: Well, and it's something that if it hasn't affected your city yet, especially on this side of the country, it's something you will likely see more of. Hopefully, as you mentioned, late tomorrow and early Saturday is the peak, but we are monitoring it every morning as I know you are closely.

HENGESBACH: Yeah.

JIMENEZ: Stephanie Hengesbach, really appreciate you taking the time. Thanks for being here.

HENGESBACH: Yeah. Not a problem, thank you. JIMENEZ: Of course. All right, coming up next for us with the ceasefire over and the Strait of Hormuz essentially closed, sources tell CNN President Trump is receiving options to expand military operations in Iran. We'll talk about it, coming up after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:46:53]

KEILAR: Iran is threatening to crush all infrastructures throughout the region if President Trump carries out his threat to attack Iran's bridges and power plants. The Iranian military warning that the Strait of Hormuz is an unbreakable red line after a new round of attacks with the U.S. Sources tell CNN that Trump is receiving options to expand the military operations.

Dana Stroul, Research Director for the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for the Middle East, is with us now. And looking at some of what you've written in the past, I feel like you answered this question months ago about what increasing military operations on the part of the U.S. could actually achieve or what we could hope that it would achieve.

DANA STROUL, FORMER DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF DEFENSE FOR THE MIDDLE EAST: Yeah, so Trump is stuck at this point in time. What we know is that just U.S. military strikes on their own are unlikely to shift Iran's calculus on this. Military strikes alone are not going to topple this regime, are not going to be able to remove the nuclear threat, completely eliminate the missile threat, completely eliminate all of the terrorist groups across the region.

And instead what we've had since he started this war in February is Iran respond by threatening freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. And with military strikes only, we will never be able to eliminate all of Iran's capabilities to disrupt that traffic and that's the conundrum of this moment.

KEILAR: So is Trump stuck?

STROUL: He's stuck at this moment in time with very few options. One is his administration is turning back on this economic blockade with the naval blockade, which means Iran can't get its ships in or out. And what we've seen is the Iranians already respond by targeting more ships, by targeting energy infrastructure across the Gulf. And Trump's next step is basically to escalate against civilian infrastructure in Iran.

And there we already -- we've seen this play before. What's going to happen is the Iranians are going to respond. There's going to be broader war and violence across the Middle East. Everyone is going to lose. And in terms of economic punishment, it's going to take a really long time for this to change Iran's calculus and probably the global economy and Americans don't have that kind of time.

KEILAR: Trump doesn't want it to appear that he's out of options or that he has terrible options, but he doesn't really have that many options. And Iran has made it clear that it can wage war much more cheaply than the U.S. can and the objectives that the U.S. can meet by waging war militarily here are really in question. So how do you see the president's options at this point in time?

STROUL: Well, it's interesting that they announced that he had that meeting with his national security team yesterday. On the one hand, we know that Trump doesn't really listen to his advisers. He shoots from the hip. So interesting that he chose to have that meeting and hopefully, he listened to his advisers when they talked about the risk of getting into a major escalatory cycle.

But that's actually a pretty classic Washington policy move to signal, I had this meeting, I'm considering options, but I haven't played those cards yet. And the Iranians have seen this from this administration over and over and over.

So again, I think Trump's choices here are really narrow.

[13:50:00]

Escalating isn't going to get the Strait of Hormuz completely open and that is what all of this fighting is about at this moment in time.

KEILAR: Does the president have to secure the Strait of Hormuz? Does he have to make sure that it stays open, and that Iran does not have control of it? Because it seems at this point in time, talking to people who've actually kind of war-gamed this out, that the only way to really do that is to have some boots on the ground.

STROUL: Well, first of all, I think it's important to recall that the Strait of Hormuz was open before this war started.

KEILAR: Sure.

STROUL: Trump went to war for the nuclear program, for the missile program, and for Iran's cultivation of terrorist groups across the Middle East. And now, we are only talking about the Strait of Hormuz. Number two, Trump is starting to say, no, the United States isn't responsible for keeping this critical choke point open. We've been providing this service to the world for all of these years and I'm just going to charge tolls and that's it.

But for Iran, they've now realized the most potent leverage they can get to bend the international community to their will is by shooting drones and missiles into the Strait of Hormuz. And we've seen that this affects Americans at home, oil prices, gas prices, and the global economy. So yes, the United States has an interest in making sure that no adversary anyway, especially not in the Middle East, can close down a strategic waterway.

KEILAR: So it used to be that Iran was looking at its nuclear program, obviously, as a chance to have leverage, and the U.S. was putting economic pressure on Iran. Iran was trying to exercise strength through some of the proxies. Now Iran has the Strait. So how are you seeing these different things in sort of the dynamic of them working together? How does Iran see it? STROUL: Iran now realizes that the best leverage it has for the survival of the regime is trying to manage commerce and the free flow of navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. And the reality is we're not going back to the status quo ante, where Iran didn't threaten the Strait of Hormuz.

And so we are on the verge of a new navigational order. I would say for the safety and security of the American people, for the prosperity of Americans at home, and for the global economy, we need to have an order in this critical waterway where Iran and the regime can't close it every time they don't like something. And to do that, the United States can't do this by itself.

It needs a coalition. It needs others standing with them, insisting on unfettered transit through this critical waterway. And that's what we don't have at this moment in time.

KEILAR: Yeah, we don't see that. So just finally, I mean, are we in quagmire territory? And if not, how does the U.S. stay out of that?

STROUL: We are on the cusp of a quagmire here because the economic blockade on Iran is going to take a long time to work out. Remember, Iran got this massive cash influx during that really generous period of the MOU.

And we're never going to be able to eliminate every drone and every missile that they can shoot into the Strait of Hormuz. So either escalate or agree to something that's on terms favorable to Iran are not good options for the United States, nor for the region.

KEILAR: Dana Stroul, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

And next, Attorney General Nominee, Todd Blanche has just made an unexpected visit to Capitol Hill after a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein demanded to meet with Blanche and only Blanche. This brand new reporting ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:58:08]

JIMENEZ: This just into CNN, Attorney General Nominee, Todd Blanche just made a surprise visit to Capitol Hill where a Jeffrey Epstein survivor spent the morning testifying.

KEILAR: This comes as the Senate Judiciary Committee enters Day 2 of hearings on Blanche's record and conduct as Acting AG, as Senators decide whether to advance his nomination to lead the Justice Department. CNN's MJ Lee is here with details.

Tell us what you're learning, MJ.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL ENTERPRISE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, so Todd Blanche just told reporters that he may, in fact, meet with Epstein survivors later today. This is coming on the heels of Republican Senator, Thom Tillis essentially saying, unless you have a meeting with survivors, I cannot get to a yes.

But let's listen to what Blanche just said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TODD BLANCHE, ATTORNEY GENERAL NOMINEE: The Department of Justice will always meet with victims or their representatives. And if those victims or their representatives have evidence that anybody committed a crime, whether it has to do with Jeffrey Epstein, anybody else that was associated with Jeffrey Epstein or anybody else, we will, of course, move forward and investigate and prosecute.

My understanding is that there were some victims here who wanted, who are here, who were in D.C. today, and they wanted to meet with the Department of Justice. I made my staff available. They did not want to meet with my staff. They wanted to meet with me. I rearranged my schedule to try to meet with them. I've been here waiting. It didn't work out, so we're going to see if there's a way we can meet either later today or sometime soon.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: And I'm also just getting a sense of the maneuvering that happened that got us to this point. I'm told by Dani Bensky, who was that survivor who was in that hearing room, she was approached, she says, by a DOJ official and basically told, you can meet with a different DOJ official later today, the National Coordinator for Child Exploitation and Human Trafficking. And that Dani essentially told them, no, on behalf of the survivors, it has to be a meeting with Blanche and Blanche only, just as Tillis had requested.

This has set off a bit of a scramble in the survivor's community. Remember, some of them had actually already left town --