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U.S. Asks Troops for Creative and Unconventional Ideas to Punish Iran; Progressive Upstart Abdul El-Sayed Runs Against Michigan Congresswoman Haley Stevens for Senate Nominee; Progressive Positions on Israel, AIPAC Deepen Democratic Party Divisions; Crews Race to Contain Spokane-Area Wildfires, 700 Plus Homes Destroyed. Aired 3:30- 4p ET

Aired August 03, 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]

RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: ... Certainly suffering from injuries and bleeding. And this is all really important because it speaks to, of course, this criminal responsibility that the prosecution and the defense really are trying to get at. Was she mentally insane at the time or is she criminally responsible for killing her three children using exercise bands to strangle them?

That is really at the heart of this case -- Brian.

BRIAN ABEL, CNN HOST: Disturbing details. Randi Kaye, appreciate you covering this for us. Thank you.

KAYE: Sure.

ABEL: Ahead, CNN's exclusive reporting on an unusual move from the Pentagon. Why a senior officer is asking for, quote, creative and unconventional ideas for punishing Iran.

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[15:35:04]

ABEL: A CNN exclusive. Sources say the Pentagon is asking U.S. troops for creative and unconventional ideas to punish Iran, essentially crowdsourcing new ways to wage the war President Trump launched now in its sixth month. CNN's Zach Cohen helped break this story and is here now with details.

So, Zach, what are you learning about this?

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY REPORTER: Yes, sources are telling me and our colleague Katie Bo Lillis that the Pentagon is really trying to cast a wider net as it seeks fresh ideas for how to ramp up the pressure on Iran at this stage in the conflict, which we're told by multiple sources is not inherently a bad idea. This war was stated to only last about six weeks, and we're now in the sixth month of the war itself, which has really changed the calculus as far as military planners are concerned. We're told that U.S. Central Command is really taking a look at its strategy as a whole and trying to reevaluate what it can do to try to push Iran to the negotiating table. And our sources are also saying, though, that this e-mail, this crowdsourcing e-mail, is a sign of the limited options that President Donald Trump has available to him at this point to try to get Iran to the table on his terms.

And that's something that we've seen play out over the course of this conflict, whether it's concerns about the diminishing U.S. munitions stockpile, the fact that even Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Dan Caine has acknowledged that airstrikes, airpower have their limitations. So these stated objectives that President Trump has laid out since the beginning of the conflict, preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and even reopening the Strait of Hormuz has proven more challenging to accomplish with just military might alone.

And we're seeing even now Donald Trump giving the Iranians one more chance to make some sort of an initial agreement over the Strait of Hormuz. But in the meantime, we do see military planners really trying to broaden the scope and solicit creative and unconventional ideas for how they can maybe handle the situation going forward.

ABEL: Certainly an intriguing peek behind the curtain. Obviously, we've reached out to the military on this reporting. What are we hearing?

COHEN: We have. We reached out to U.S. Central Command about this reporting and they responded saying, quote, "U.S. Central Command has a long history of thinking and working in innovative ways. Admiral Cooper, who runs U.S. Central Command in particular, reaches out to members of our great team regardless of rank to achieve the highest levels of operational performance possible."

And I want to note, too, that this e-mail was sent just days before President Trump threatened to escalate the conflict. And we know we've talked a lot about concerns that he has heard from his top advisers about what the potential consequences and the potential lack of effectiveness of that escalatory strike would be. So it's all not happening in a vacuum, but more creative thinking is being encouraged, not just by the senior leaders in the military, but also lower ranks as well.

ABEL: All right, Zach Cohen, our thanks to you and Katie Bo for this excellent reporting.

Ahead for us, Michigan voters will head to the polls tomorrow for a critical Senate primary. What the results could tell us about the future of the Democratic progressive movement nationwide.

[15:40:00]

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BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Today in Michigan, the Democratic candidates for Senate are making their final pitches in a race that puts the progressive left to the test like never before in this election season. Democratic Socialists have won several primaries in deep blue districts, but tomorrow voters throughout the entire purple swing state of Michigan will weigh in. And they're deciding who should be the Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate. Establishment Party Congresswoman Haley Stevens or progressive upstart Abdul El-Sayed, who says he's not a Democratic Socialist, but backs many of the movement's issues. The Democrat who wins tomorrow goes up against former Republican Congressman Mike Rogers in November.

Let's bring in David Hogg, who was vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. He is now the president of the group Leaders We Deserve. David, thank you so much for being with us.

DAVID HOGG, FORMER VICE CHAIR, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: And you've publicly supported Abdul El-Sayed in the Michigan Senate primary. Your organization has also backed a number of other candidates. State Rep Donovan McKinney, who is a DSA-backed candidate, challenging the incumbent Congressman Shri Thanedar.

So as you are -- I mean, you have your expectations, I think, for tomorrow. But I wonder what you think the results in Michigan should be telling the National Party leadership about where the party really is in Michigan and maybe even more broadly.

HOGG: Well, I think what these results are going to confirm is what we saw in New York, what we saw in Colorado, which is that voters are sick and tired of establishment Democrats that they felt like they've been let down by for years and years and years at this point and increasingly feel like they aren't doing more than anything other than a strongly worded letter to fight back against Donald Trump. They want fighters.

You know, our friends over at the Working Families Party just did a poll in 18 toss-up districts across the country that showed even with moderate and independent voters, they want somebody who is against the establishment that will buck their party and will also stand up to a lot of the wealthy donors.

Eighty percent of them feel like wealthy donors have way too much of a say in who represents them in Congress and they want somebody who is actually supported by normal people, which I don't think is shocking.

KEILAR: We have some recent polling that talks about the kind of changes that Democratic voters and those who lean towards the party would like to see. It shows about a third of Democrats and Democratic- leaning adults identify as Democratic Socialists. How should the party be incorporating those voters into a big tent?

While also appealing to other voters who do not identify in that way.

[15:45:00]

I mean, how do you think that they can bring all of those people together and still manage to win in general elections?

HOGG: I mean, to be honest with you, I have to go back to some of my own experience working across the aisle at times on gun violence prevention, you know, and building bipartisan consensus around it. I can tell you to make progress in politics, whether it's within your own party or on an issue as important as addressing the crisis of gun violence in this country, sometimes it's not about focusing on what you can constantly disagree on. We could do that for days and days.

We need to focus on what we can agree on and move forward on that. And broadly speaking, the themes of what's really resonating with people and why they're voting for Democrats is because they're tired of paying so much for the tariffs that Donald Trump has imposed. They're tired of paying so much for prescription drugs.

They're tired of paying so much for healthcare. And they're tired of a corrupt political system where our president in the past year has made over a billion dollars off of his own cryptocurrency scam with Trump coin, which is a real thing, and blatantly insider trading as he's done as president of the United States. They want somebody who actually stand up to the establishment of their party and say what we are doing right now is not working.

And that's what they're looking for. And I think what our party needs to learn is, frankly, to go back to some of the original founding motto of our country, e pluribus unum, out of many, one, and realize that if we're going to be a big tent like people always love to say, that doesn't just mean having a right side of the tent, it also means having a left side, and figuring out in our general elections how we can put our differences aside and make sure that we come together on the thing we all can agree on, which is that we have to defeat Republicans.

KEILAR: There's an issue that's really difficult, I think, for people in your party to reconcile their differences on, and that is how Israel is playing and how it's animating your party, these primaries. You're seeing it, especially money from the pro-Israel lobby, AIPAC. That's been huge in these elections.

In a recent interview with CNN's Donie O'Sullivan, you compared AIPAC to the NRA as one of those forces that you say you were told were too powerful to go up against. And when Donie talks to you about this and he says, you know, some people might find that comparison surprising, here's how you responded. Let's watch.

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HOGG: It shouldn't be. Both are getting kids killed. And I don't draw a line between whether it's kids in Parkland, kids on any street in America, in any community, or if it's kids in Palestine.

It's not OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So AIPAC forcefully rejects that comparison.

HOGG: Shocking.

KEILAR: It's not shocking, right, but they called your comments despicable and disgusting.

HOGG: That's what I would call their organization.

KEILAR: But the question I have, and however you want to address and respond to what AIPAC said, please go ahead.

HOGG: Yes.

KEILAR: But what I really want to ask you is to sort of jump off your point where you said, let's talk as a party about what people agree on. There are people in your party who are going to agree with what AIPAC said about what you said.

How do you, as a party, figure out a way to come together when you have those two sides?

HOGG: Well, I think sometimes there's a time for us to work together across the aisle and figure out, even within our own party, on these issues. But I also think there's times where sometimes there just is an impasse and we won't be able to agree at the same time. And that's why these primaries are so important.

We have been doing much of the same approach with our policy with regards to Israel and Palestine for decades at this point, and it hasn't worked, and it's actually gotten worse. And I think that's part of why people are so animated in these primaries about this issue. Because it's not just that this is voters' number one issue necessarily, it's what it represents, which is an overall sense that our politicians are out of touch with what the needs are of normal, everyday people in this country, old people, young people, people of all ages that feel like it's increasingly hard to get by.

And their politicians are constantly being, like we're seeing right now in Michigan, how much money did AIPAC put into that race? Over $60 million to support Haley Stevens? Is it any wonder why voters feel increasingly like their elected officials are not really representing them?

So to your question, I think what we need to do is actually focus on properly enforcing a moral foreign policy and say, you know what, we're not going to continue to slap the hand of a country that we're giving billions of dollars to and saying, no, no, no, don't do those settlements, don't do that, and just slap their hand over and over again. We're taking the same approach with them that we're taking with Republicans. Strongly worded letters.

When there is a genocide, that I would call it, that is happening, where we are actively complicit in arming a country that is committing these atrocities is not something that's going to work.

KEILAR: You said you're expecting an inflection point in Michigan. We're really seeing this issue of Israel playing out, certainly in that race. How do you find agreement, make room, come together?

How do you see there being a place in your party for voters, politicians, candidates who support Israel and they want to make sure that there is a place in the party for support of Israel and the right of Israel to exist?

[15:50:00]

HOGG: I think the challenge for them is to talk to us about what are we actually going to do to make sure that we have a better humanitarian policy, that when we continuously condemn a country for their acts over and over and over again, like I mentioned with the settlements or Ben-Gvir, for example, and a lot of the things he's been saying, what are we going to do to actually change course? Because I think we can all agree that what we have been doing has not been working. Increasingly, in our party, what we're seeing is that the base, and the American people, broadly speaking, are done with this.

In that same poll that I mentioned earlier of those 18 key battleground districts, when you ask them what's more important, is it somebody who is fully supportive of our current U.S. policy towards Israel of giving them billions of dollars, giving them as many arms as possible and just continuing that policy, that status quo that we have, or changing it, the vast, vast majority of them, including independents, including moderates, say that they're less likely to vote for the person that's continuing that same policy of sending them billions of dollars. So ultimately, people in D.C. can have whatever they want to say and what they believe about this issue. But ultimately, voters that are actually deciding these elections are changing a lot faster than in D.C.

And what we're seeing across the country right now is the budding of those two forces at the same time, where they're increasingly deciding these primary elections. And ultimately, what people like Abdul El- Sayed and other people around the country are doing is making one of AIPAC's largest assets, which is the millions and millions, tens of millions, hundreds of millions of dollars they are spending on elections, their greatest liability. If you look at, there was something I saw on Twitter of like the word cloud of when voters in Michigan were asked what they thought most about Haley Stevens and what words they associated most with her versus Abdul El-Sayed. The biggest thing by far was AIPAC in that word cloud.

KEILAR: David Hogg, big election we're going to be watching. It's getting an outsized amount of attention. And we appreciate you being with us to talk about it.

HOGG: Thank you.

KEILAR: Thank you.

Still to come, a race against time as firefighters are trying to use a break in the weather to get some control over these devastating wildfires in Washington State. We'll have the latest forecast next.

[15:55:00]

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KEILAR: So right now, crews in Spokane, Washington, are racing to contain three major wildfires that are just raging out of control. There are 65,000 families that have evacuated the area. More than 700 homes have been destroyed here.

Today, officials say tens of thousands of additional structures are now at risk.

ABEL: Also today, for the first time, we are now seeing some of the devastating before and after images. Look at this. You can see street after street of this neighborhood here is now charred beyond recognition.

One official who's been on the ground said what he witnessed looked like a war zone, as some families are now returning to see if there's anything they can salvage. And today, there is a promising weather window in this firefight. Meteorologist Derek Van Dam is standing by for us with more on that, Derek.

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, I need to show you this too, Brian and Brianna. This is an incredible satellite before and after image as well from the same company, but it shows you the fire retardant that was left from one of the large air tankers that flew overhead trying to stop the forward progression of this wildfire that was advancing this weekend across Spokane. Of course, unfortunately, these homes were not spared from the fire, unfortunately.

So many stories just like that as people wait to come back to their communities to see whether or not their home was destroyed or damaged. These are real lives. Real peoples just changed at a moment's notice, and it's just heartbreaking to see it.

Satellite imagery really paints quite the picture here. This is when the height of the wildfires started across parts of Washington and into Oregon. You can see the strong winds that were coming out of the southwest.

These are the three large fires, the burn scars, that surround Spokane, and we've talked about this. The Autumn Lane fire actually skipped over the Spokane River. This one crossed one of the major roads within the city.

And, of course, these are all populated areas. Now you overlay the winds on top of this. It's light and variable, so this is the moment right now that firefighters need to take advantage of the conditions and gain some ground on this advancing wildfire.

But by the end of the week, temperatures are going to rise. The winds are going to pick up again, so that could spark additional spot fires away from the front line. There's the heat dome that's going to build into the west.

We're going to spike our temperatures well above average in places like Spokane and southward into Oregon. There's a lot of smoke associated with these wildfires as well. It's really locked in across the state of Washington and into Oregon, now drifting towards the coastline. These will likely be expanded. This is the air quality alert, or the air alerts, stretching from Casper, Wyoming, all the way to Seattle and Spokane, southward into Boise. I mean, this smoke is very hazardous to breathe, especially for vulnerable communities, but when we talk about it in this level of concentrations, you're going to have some issues, and if you're an asthmatic like myself, you'll be feeling it.

You'll likely feel it in your eyes as well. I've already seen reports on social media complaining about it. So is there rain in this forecast?

I would like better answers than no, but that's unfortunately the reality we're facing. Increased temperatures, dried out vegetation, and increasing winds is the recipe that we need to start additional wildfires, so we'll be on the lookout for that as several major wildfires continue to burn out west -- Brian, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, and this is just something that we see an astronomical growth in, these fires, right, Derek? I mean, this is just, it's unbelievable.

VAN DAM: Oregon, the state of Oregon, is teetering on its most acreage burned. We haven't quite got there just yet, but it's getting closer.

KEILAR: Yes, it is horrific. Derek Van Dam, thank you so much. "THE ARENA" with Kasie Hunt starts right now.

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