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Air Quality in Some U.S. Cities Hazardous from Wildfire Smoke; Trump to Push Foreign Meddling Claims in Election Speech; Vance Says Trump Administration Screwed Up Epstein Files Release; At Least 1 Dead in Texas Hill Country Flooding; Trump's Teleprompter Operator Under Investigation for Insider Trading. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired July 16, 2026 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN HOST: The smoke from more than 3,000 wildfires in Canada is drifting south, creating orange, foggy skies, thick with haze in North America. And as you might imagine by looking at it, it can be dangerous. The EPA says that smoke is now at levels it considers very unhealthy or hazardous in cities, including Chicago and Detroit, many more as well, with 100 million people affected.

So I want to bring in Joe Allen. He is a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health. He's also the author of "Healthy Buildings, How Indoor Spaces Can Make You Sick or Keep You Well."

Appreciate you being here. I just want to start with how do you expect this smoke that we're seeing will impact the health of people living in the Northeast and Midwest?

JOE ALLEN, HARVARD SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes, so thanks for having me on. This is a really serious event. As people surely can tell, we can see it.

[15:35:00]

People can taste it. Their eyes may be watering. They may be having headaches for sure, but there's more subtle effects that are even more dangerous that most people may not be aware of.

So for example, we know that every time the outdoor levels of this pollution increase by 10 microgram per cubic meter, there's a 2.5 percent increased risk of a heart attack. Well, typically 10, and now we're seeing 100 in Philadelphia, several hundred in Chicago. That means the heart attack risk has gone up 50 percent.

We also know that the risk for kids when the levels are typical, it's about a 5 percent increased risk of kids being admitted to the hospital for an asthma attack. Well, at these levels, it's almost a twofold increased risk. So yes, you'll feel in your eyes, you'll feel it, you'll have a headache, but also there's a serious risk of heart attack, asthma attack for kids and adults.

So this is a very serious event. JIMENEZ: So for those people who might have heart disease, lung disease, little kids, older adults, that might be especially at risk for smoke-related illness, what is your advice to them in sort of getting through what we're all dealing with here?

ALLEN: Well, we should start with the advice most people hear, which is it's good advice to go indoors, not do strenuous activity. That's all good. If you're going to be outside or have to be outside, one of those well-fitting N95 masks can be really effective.

But I also want to talk about the thing most people are not talking about, and that is this air pollution gets inside of our buildings. So it's not enough simply to go inside. You need to go inside to a place that has good levels of filtration.

The reality is we breathe more outdoor air pollution indoors. That is shocking to most people, but it's the truth. So there's some simple things you can do.

You want to upgrade your filters to what's called a MERV 13 filter, M- E-R-V, or use one of those portable air cleaners or portable air purifiers with a HEPA filter. These can be really effective at capturing the types of particles that are causing this air pollution that's coming from the wildfire smoke.

JIMENEZ: And in some places across the Northeast and beyond, as we're talking, we're showing what it's looking like in Toronto at that orange haze. But I'm sure you remember a few years ago where we were also seeing similar images like this in places across the Northeast, New York, also stemming from wildfires as well. How would you characterize the threat level of where we are right now versus some of what we saw a few years ago?

ALLEN: Well, I mean, what we saw a couple of years ago was very severe. I think we're in that same spot. And that same spot is we are at vastly increased risk due to the changing climate. Let's just be straightforward about it.

We're seeing an increased risk and people see this, right? It's all of a sudden, it's every summer, every couple of summers, there's hundreds of fires burning. We still have urban wildfires happening.

So this threat is a lot more real. I do want to drive home one thing. It's an extreme risk when the sky is orange and it's hazy.

And people, I think, recognize this. Go indoors, make sure you have good filters. Also, this pollution spreads far and wide.

So even people, when it starts to look a little more clear, those particles that are quite dangerous are still out there. You still want to be sure you're taking some precautions. It's not only when the skies are that haze or this orange.

In fact, this air pollution is reaching, like you said, over a hundred million people. It is casting a wide net and it's not just the places we're seeing with these extreme hazy skies at the moment. JIMENEZ: Well, again, it is something from a health perspective, from a weather perspective, every perspective you can think of. Something really worth paying close attention to. Joe Allen, I appreciate you being here. Appreciate the insights as well.

ALLEN: Thanks for having me on.

JIMENEZ: Of course. All right, just ahead, we will have more on President Trump's expected primetime speech, where sources tell CNN he will reveal what he's describing, as we understand from reporting, as new information about foreign efforts to influence U.S. elections. Stay with CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: As President Trump prepares to give a primetime speech that is focused on U.S. elections, Senate Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer is slamming him. Here's what he said just moments ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY), MINORITY LEADER: Donald Trump's speech tonight has nothing to do with the 2020 elections. It has everything to do with the 2026 elections. He's scared to death that he will lose in 2026, and so he's trying to change the subject.

No one has any faith that Trump is going to tell the truth. He's lied for six years. He's particularly lied about the elections in 2020.

No one is going to have any faith in what he says and does.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And CNN has learned that the president is expected to claim that foreign actors have worked to influence U.S. elections.

I want to bring in Chuck Todd, host of the Chuck Toddcast. Now, look, Chuck, we still have not seen the speech.

That is something we can all acknowledge, but we're getting clues as to what the subject will be, and we're already hearing reaction from members of Congress. What are your expectations for tonight?

CHUCK TODD, HOST, THE CHUCK TODDCAST: That it's going to feel very familiar, right? That there isn't going to be new information. That it is going to be sort of, frankly, the greatest hits of what he does on this 2020 stuff quite a bit.

He'll allude to some declassified stuff that he's declassified, because that sounds impressive, but it won't be any information that does anything to tell you that. So, I mean, look, this has been in the courts. This has been litigated to the point where his allies have had to pay money because they have lied to a court, right?

Have lied and have defamed folks.

[15:45:00]

So the track record of him on this, literally, there's over a billion dollars has been spent by entities that have attempted to back up his claims, right? So the irony to all this that I think, that I wonder, you know, I joke that we sometimes, I guess we banned logic during the Trump era, but we're supposed to believe that in the election that his administration was in charge of, that's the one there was foreign interference.

Not the ones the two Democratic administrations were in charge of, right, which he has always claimed there wasn't foreign interference. Obviously, what happened in 16, when actually there's been credible proof that there was. In fact, the Justice Department prosecuted, excuse me, indicted entities that we have yet to put on trial because they're in Russia.

But it's -- I will say this, politically, there are people around him that think this is good for him and getting his base out. I don't think this is good politically, which is why you see so many elected Republicans on the ballot in 26 staying as far away from this as they can.

KEILAR: Yes, that's really interesting. Yesterday, Chuck, Democratic Senator John Ossoff pushed Trump's DNI pick, Jay Clayton, to say who won the 2020 election. And Clayton just, you know, he wouldn't answer it, frankly.

He eventually admitted that Biden was fairly and duly elected under our process. Ahead of the president's speech, Ossoff is accusing Trump of sour grapes election denialism. Is that how Democrats should handle it?

What do you think?

TODD: Look, I think that there's, look, I think some people, I think Ossoff, look, he's the one on the ballot. And he's probably the one that's going to benefit the most politically. This certainly harms his -- I mean, the irony is the only reason we have two Democratic senators from Georgia from the 2020 runoff elections is due to Donald Trump telling his own supporters don't participate in the runoff.

People seem to forget the role Donald Trump played in essentially demoralizing the Republican base. And, you know, it was Donald Trump is the reason why Democrats won those runoffs more than any other entity back during, you know, it's always been so surreal to me. That happened on January 5th, literally 24 hours later is January 6th.

And we kind of memory haul those special runoff elections, which in and of itself was incredibly unique and it decided which party was going to get the Senate majority. So, you know, I don't think you hide from it. Right.

And that's my advice to my fellow members of the media. Don't hide from it because then it looks like you're hiding something.

Sure, we've heard this all before. Do you want to see the list of entities in court? You know, I just think when media presents it, they just need to make sure they present a truth sandwich, meaning you let people know the facts, let him do his thing and then remind people of the facts on the other side.

JIMENEZ: Before we let you go, Chuck, I want to bring up Vice President Vance. He was recently sat down with Joe Rogan and they discussed a lot of things, but one of them in the Epstein files and Vice President Vance said the Trump administration absolutely screwed up the comms around the Epstein files and should have released everything immediately. What did you make of that?

TODD: Well, it's funny because Vance also outed himself. He goes, look, I'm an O.G. conspiracy theorist. Right.

As he said, he goes, he went down -- he'll go down any rabbit hole and probably is still willing to go down any Epstein rabbit hole there. I think that tells you a little bit more about Vance's own politics, right? He wants to stay in the good graces of that of that part of the information ecosystem that has been, you know, in many ways, there is a portion of MAGA where Epstein and that scandal has been an important rallying cry, if you will. And I think it shows you I think Vance wants to be of them.

So in a weird way, he was pushing distance because the comms problem was the president, right? It was the comms issue that he talks about is the president slow walking the legislation, trying to stop it from being passed in the House, trying to stop it from being passed in the Senate, then finally stopping it from being released, trying to do that crazy deal with Ghislaine Maxwell.

So in his own way, he was sort of stabbing the president in the back with those comments.

KEILAR: Yes. I wonder if he thought he was sort of jabbing Pam Bondi. But to your point, I think that's the right one. It's the president.

TODD: I was just going to say, who was Pam Bondi listening to? Brianna, you know, this administration.

KEILAR: That's exactly right.

TODD: I think we know she doesn't freelance.

KEILAR: Yes.

TODD: In fact, that was I think why she's not in the job is she really doesn't want to freelance.

KEILAR: Yes, really interesting point. Chuck, thank you so much. Great to have you as always.

And we are following some devastating and deadly flooding in Texas. It's happening in the same area, thereabouts that experienced catastrophic flooding almost exactly one year ago.

[15:50:00]

JIMENEZ: Nearly 140 people died last July, including twenty seven campers and counselors at Camp Mystic. CNN's Ed Lavandera is in Ingram, Texas, which is a few miles northeast of where that disaster happened. And Ed, I can see water flowing behind you.

But what are you seeing?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Omar and Brianna, it's surreal to be back here a little more than a year ago. Those devastating floods, deadly floods. This is Guadalupe River once again just roaring behind us where rainfall has fallen.

Residents were telling us here a little while ago that this area here in particular, we're in the town of Ingram, which is just downstream from where Camp Mystic was. Kerrville is back this way. This is an area that was just simply devastated and has dealt with so much of the pain from last year's flooding.

But we saw the waters here. Residents were telling us I came up at its peak around five o'clock in the morning. So it's gone down a little bit.

And where we were standing here this morning probably would have been we would have been completely underwater here. But this has been an area that once again, it's not just here along the Guadalupe River, but north of where we are all the way to Fredericksburg. You go south of where we are.

You have the town of Uvalde where the governor says that they are dealing with some serious flooding situations there as well. So this remains a very dynamic and dangerous situation to the west of where we are. The rainfall continues to fall.

And the problem here is that while it might not be raining where we're at, all of that water will be coming downstream. So it will take some time for these rivers and tributaries and creeks all over the area that kind of funnel its way through this part of the Texas Hill Country down through San Antonio and into the South Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. It's going to take some time for all of this to go away.

So they are urging people to just stay vigilant, especially about the roadways. As we were driving in, we saw a lot of roads, temporarily closed because of the high flood waters. So this is a situation that these residents are going to be dealing with for at least another 24 hours or so.

KEILAR: All right, Ed, thank you so much for the very latest there from the hard-hit area in Texas.

And still ahead, President Trump's longtime teleprompter operator is now allegedly under investigation. The allegations against him are, quite frankly, stunning. And we'll have him next.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JIMENEZ: CNN has learned that President Trump's longtime teleprompter operator is being investigated for insider trading.

KEILAR: Sources tell us the White House employee is under investigation by the federal agency that regulates prediction markets. The staffer allegedly made concerning trades on the prediction site Kalshi. One source said the person made more than $90,000 in profits.

So let's get more now from CNN senior reporter Marshall Cohen. Marshall, what else can you tell us about this?

MARSHALL COHEN, CNN SENIOR REPORTER: Guys, this is a pretty wild story, and it is the first known example of potential insider trading coming from the Trump White House. So as you mentioned, this is the president's longtime teleprompter operator, a trusted aide who has been with Donald Trump for a while. His name is Gabriel Perez.

And sources tell me that the prediction market site Kalshi uncovered some suspicious activity relating to mention markets, which are where you can bet on what public figures, including Trump, are going to say. They're very popular markets because with Trump, it can be unpredictable what he's going to say. And you can make a lot of money.

And if you're the teleprompter guy, you have inside information. That is the allegation here. Kalshi says that it uncovered suspicious activity, froze the accounts which had profited more than $90,000 and referred the matter to federal authorities, specifically to the CFTC, which is the federal agency that regulates prediction markets.

Now, the CFTC is investigating the matter, and the White House confirmed today that Perez is cooperating with that investigation. The press secretary, Karoline Leavitt at the White House, said that the president was outraged by this. Here's what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I'm aware of the report. The president is, too. I spoke with him about it.

He believes it's deeply unfortunate and, frankly, a disgrace. And the individual that was cited in that report is complying with the CFTC. This individual will no longer be here.

He'll be on paid administrative leave. I'm sorry, without pay. The administrative leave is unpaid, to be very clear.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COHEN: Guys, two big points that I want to make. Number one, this comes a few months after the White House warned its staff that insider trading on these prediction sites is illegal and unethical. So, the staff was warned, number one. And number two, for full disclosure, CNN has a partnership with Kalshi. We use its data to cover major events, but CNN journalists like us are not allowed to use prediction markets.

JIMENEZ: Yes, that's right. You know, Marshall, you brought up that memo that was sent to staff back in March saying bets on inside information would not be tolerated. Do we know whether these bets happened before or after that memo was sent?

And what was the environment around when that memo was sent out in the first place?

COHEN: It's not entirely clear. Some other outlets have reported that these trades occurred in December and January around the State of the Union. CNN hasn't independently corroborated that.

The memo was sent out in late March, to get that timeline clear. And look, this is happening while prediction markets are exploding. This was once a niche area of the financial market space, but now there are billions of dollars in trades that occur every single week on these platforms.

And these mentioned markets, where you can bet on what Trump and others are going to say, they've seen almost $1 billion this year on Kalshi alone.

JIMENEZ: Wow.

KEILAR: All right, Marshall, thank you so much. Such an important story, and we do appreciate it.

Omar, a pleasure anchoring with you today.

JIMENEZ: Always.

KEILAR: Always. And "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

END