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Trump Returns To New York For His Hush Money Criminal Trial; U.S. Pauses Ammunition Shipment To Israel; Catastrophic Floodwaters In Texas Led To 5-Year-Old's Death; Biden To Talk About Fighting Antisemitism At Holocaust Ceremony This Week; South Dakota Governor And Trump VP Contender Kristi Noem Defends Shooting And Killing Her Dog; Father Works Two Jobs, Still Can't Afford Food; Struggle Is Real; Warning To The World: Australia's Climate Disasters. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired May 05, 2024 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:01:19]

JESSICA DEAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Jessica Dean in Washington.

And just two hours from now, former president Donald Trump will be back in a New York City courtroom for the fourth week of his hush money criminal trial. One of Trump's most loyal and trusted aides, Hope Hicks, took the stand on Friday offering a dramatic and emotional day of testimony after bursting into tears in front of her former boss.

CNN's Zachary Cohen is here in the studio with me.

Zach, walk us through some of the most important moments in her testimony and also how the prosecution might use these as they move forward, trying to weave together their story to jurors.

ZACHARY COHEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jessica, we saw the prosecution really nudged closer to the repayment of Michael Cohen, Trump's former lawyer, which is really at the center of this trial, and also toward the alleged crimes that are outlined in this indictment. That was really the key takeaway from Hope Hicks' testimony. And that includes when prosecutors asked her about the reaction inside the Trump White House in 2018, when these stories about the payment to Stormy Daniels first started to emerge.

And Hope Hicks recounted a conversation that she had with Donald Trump where he said that, yes, Michael Cohen paid Stormy Daniels on his own volition. I didn't know anything about it and I wasn't involved in that. Hope Hicks says that -- and testified that she didn't believe Donald Trump or Michael Cohen who said something similar to "The New York Times" and she also said that Donald Trump acknowledged that the payment and the fact that this story didn't come out before the 2016 election was really in his best interest.

She testified, quote, "I think Mr. Trump's opinion was it was better to be dealing with it now and that it would have been bad to have that story come out before the election." So it really sort of setting the scene for future witnesses who will have potentially firsthand and direct knowledge of these payments and these reimbursements, which she did not have, and allowing them to really craft this narrative that the prosecution has been trying to implant in the minds of the jurors that these hush money payments and this reimbursement of Michael Cohen was part of a broader conspiracy to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

DEAN: All right. Stay with us. I want to bring in criminal defense attorney David Oscar Markus into this conversation.

David, how damaging do you think that testimony was for the defense? Zach just walked us through some of it.

DAVID OSCAR MARKUS, FEDERAL CRIMINAL DEFENSE LAWYER: Yes, no, it's really devastating, right? Because she's an ally of Trump and is seen as someone who still is loyal to Trump in many ways. So when she's up there and crying, it's really tough on the Trump team and it's much different than Cohen, right, who has an ax to grind, who will be coming up. So it was a tough Friday, tough way to end the week. As a criminal defense lawyer you never want the prosecution to end on a Friday like that, and they did.

But the trial is far from over. You would expect the prosecution to be ahead after the first two weeks, right? That's their case. So there are still a lot of trial left.

DEAN: I did think it was interesting that Hicks testified that the former president didn't want this to be embarrassing or hurtful to his family. He was very concerned about what his wife Melania was going to think, kind of underscoring an argument that this was also at least in part personal. Do you think that helped the defense?

MARKUS: I do think it helped the defense. It's part of the way they're going to try to sow some distrust of the prosecution's case. I also thought it was interesting, you know, her testimony about deny, deny, deny, that this was the strategy of Trump, and always has been the strategy of Trump, right, deny, deny, deny. But that strategy often does not work for criminal defense lawyers in a trial.

You have to be willing to accept and concede some things and fight on the big ones. And it looks like they're denying everything in this trial, which is a tough burden for the lawyer, Todd Blanche, to take on. Todd is a good lawyer. I know him very well, but it looks like he's having to take on every single fight in this case, adopting that deny, deny, deny strategy.

[19:05:04]

DEAN: Yes, it's hard. It's a high bar.

Zach, so far we've heard from the former publisher for "The National Enquirer," David Pecker, the former lawyer for Stormy Daniels, and Hope Hicks. What other potential witnesses could we expect to see next? Michael Cohen, of course, as David just mentioned, one of them.

COHEN: There are several boldfaced names that are still out there, including Stormy Daniels, who's really at the center of these hush money allegations. And as you mentioned, Michael Cohen, who it feels like the jury has been primed and been prepped this entire process to prepare themselves for Michael Cohen's eventual testimony, both by the defense attorneys who have been insisting he can't be trusted and that he's a liar, and then also by prosecutors by saying, look, ignore the fact that he's lied in the past, ignore the fact that he does have some credibility issues.

Listen to the facts and the words that are coming out of his mouth and remember that he does have direct knowledge of what happened in this case. So that's really the pivotal moment in this case is if and when Michael Cohen takes the stand and whether or not the jury believes what he says.

DEAN: And David, which of those potential witnesses do you think could be the most challenging for the defense?

MARKUS: Well, the defense is salivating for Michael Cohen. That's going to be the big one of course. And, you know, the prosecution is going to be nervous. This is an admitted perjurer, admitted liar, and someone who's had a lot of trouble. I mean, even in this case, he promised everybody he'd stopped going on social media and, I mean, what did that last, a couple of hours. So the defense needs a win at some point in one of these battles. You know, Cinco de Mayo, the French lost that battle to the Mexican army. The defense needs a win this week because it's looking pretty bleak right now.

DEAN: Yes, and our reporters inside the courtroom have been saying that Trump has been closing his eyes, leaning back in his chair for a lot of the testimony. He then posted on Truth Social that he's not sleeping, he's actually listening intently. Regardless, what kind of impact do you think that behavior is having, if any, on the jury?

MARKUS: Well, the jury is watching every single thing that both Trump and his lawyers do, from the minute they walk into the courtroom to the minute they leave. And so they see him falling asleep. They see all of that or closing his eyes, whatever he's doing. I don't know if he's trying to send a message that this is boring testimony or whatever, but I think the jury is not going to like it. It's disrespectful.

You got to look -- you got to pay attention, unless there's some strategy there to show the jury that they just don't think it's important, but I don't think that's going to work.

DEAN: All right. Zach Cohen and David Oscar Markus, our thanks to both of you.

And we are following breaking news tonight. CNN learning the Biden administration has paused a shipment of U.S.-made ammunition to Israel, and it appears to be the first time U.S. has stopped a weapon shipment to Israeli military since the October 7th Hamas attacks.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is here with us now to talk more about this.

It is -- underscoring it is the first time this has happened since the October 7th attacks by Hamas. But what are you hearing in terms of context around this?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm hearing when it doesn't involve. We don't have all of the details as to what went into this decision-making process. We know it affects this one shipment of U.S.-made ammunitions to Israel, but a source telling me this is not connected to a potential Israeli ground invasion of Rafah, that's in the southern Gaza Strip where there are more than a million displaced Palestinians.

This is important because that has been something that the U.S. has talked at length about. They have warned Israel against an invasion of that area simply because there are so many civilians, it would be difficult to contain civilian casualties, but this pause was not related to that pressure that the U.S. is placing on Israel. Separately it does not involve other shipments. That is to say that other assistance, security assistance, ammunitions, are moving forward.

So in a statement, the National Security Council spokesperson said the following, quote, "The United States has surged billions of dollars in security assistance to Israel since the October 7th attacks, passed the largest ever supplemental appropriation for emergency assistance to Israel, led an unprecedented coalition to defend Israel against Iranian attacks, and will continue to do what is necessary to ensure Israel can defend itself from the threats it faces."

So simply from this statement making very clear here that the U.S. has not changed its policy toward Israel. A source telling me that U.S. officials maintain that. This pause in shipment does not alter that.

The other important note here is that he mentions that appropriations, $26 billion have been sent to Israel as part of this Israel-Hamas conflict that was passed by the U.S. Congress and signed by the president last month. So still a lot of questions as to why this shipment was put on hold. There is no doubt that there are tensions between the U.S. and Israel. But the U.S. official is making clear tonight that policy hasn't changed.

DEAN: And as this is going on, we have the ongoing discussions in Cairo over the weekend to try to get a hostage and ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. What's the latest on that?

ALVAREZ: These conversations have been fluid, but what we do know is that they dispatched to senior U.S. official, CIA director Bill Burns, on exactly that.

[19:10:04]

Oftentimes when the U.S. has sent him it is during an intensive phase of negotiation, so it tells us that they are in an intensive moment that these negotiations are ongoing, and that he is going to extend his trip to Doha and will be there on Monday. That according to a source. So clearly all of this still very much ongoing, whether they can land a deal is very much an open question.

But as you mentioned, Jess, this would include a temporary ceasefire and the release of hostages, multi-party negotiations, though, so still a ways to go. Unclear whether they can reach that finish line.

DEAN: All right. Priscilla Alvarez, with the latest reporting on both fronts, thanks so much.

Still ahead, a 5-year-old has died after catastrophic flooding in parts of Texas. What we're learning about the rescue efforts as people are still stranded by high water.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:15:31]

DEAN: Tonight, devastating flooding in Texas now turned deadly. In the last hour a Johnson County official confirming to CNN a child has died after being swept away in those floodwaters. Right now, some mandatory evacuation orders remain in place.

Let's get right to CNN's Rosa Flores just outside of Houston.

Rosa, I know you've brought us the breaking news about that child's death last hour. What more have you learned about the circumstances of that child's death?

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know what we know according to Johnson County officials, and this is an area that's near Dallas, is that a 911 call came in at about 2:00 a.m. this morning local time, about a man and a woman and a child stuck inside a car in the rising waters. And then of course first responders went to their rescue.

But here is what the Johnson County official said that that 911 caller witnessed the occupants get out of the vehicle and attempt to get to dry ground on foot when all were swept into the floodwaters. The adults were rescued at about 5:00 a.m. this morning. The body of the 5-year-old boy was recovered after 7:00 a.m. this morning.

And Jessica, this is what we have been hearing from officials in multiple counties and they're asking adults not to drive through rising waters. If water has swallowed the road, they are asking people not to drive through it. They're asking people not to move barricades and drive through rising water. They're also asking people to evacuate if they are in mandatory evacuation zones.

Now, we hopped on an airboat with the Harris County Sheriff's Office today. We have video of this. They were assessing an area that's right behind me earlier today. It was not accessible other than by boat. And they showed us some of the dangers. I mean, we were on this airboat, we were going over fences, over mailboxes. The stop signs were at eye level and the first responders explain some of the challenges.

Sometimes they stretch their arms towards individuals telling them that they can rescue them, they can take them to higher ground and to safety. And a lot of the times individuals deny that help. They say that they want to stay in their homes. And of course, first responders can't drag people out of their homes, out of their private property. And so that's some of the difficulties.

We talked to the lieutenant about this. And here's what he had to say about some of those challenges. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LT. DAVID JASPER, HARRIS COUNTY SHERRIF'S OFFICE: We've been evacuating people since last Wednesday and all day yesterday in this area here. And there are still some people that -- they don't want to leave for whatever reasons. We do have mandatory evacuations, as you can see it's extremely flooded here. And unfortunately, we're getting more rain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FLORES: Now, Jessica, this weather event has been compared to Hurricane Harvey because of the water levels of the San Jacinto River. I want to show you a comparison because take a look at the restaurant that's behind me. It's at a distance. You can see that it is blue, it has a roof. There was a local man here who took a picture of this building during Hurricane Harvey. And we have it for you and you can see that the water level is at about the roof.

So that gives you a sense of the comparison. Hurricane Harvey was just a beast when it comes to the amount of water. I remember Hurricane Harvey because I was here in Houston covering it for CNN. I remember clearly that we had to move multiple times, our live location, because the water was rising so quickly and it was so dangerous and it pounded Houston for so long, I believe it received about 50 inches of rain.

And so, Jessica, that just gives you a comparison if you see that photo and what you see around me, I mean, right now during Hurricane Harvey, the water would be above my head.

DEAN: Wow. All right.

FLORES: Jessica, back to you.

DEAN: Yes, good context again, Rosa, to kind of walk through the historic nature of what they've seen there.

Rosa Flores, thanks so much.

President Biden set to give a major speech on antisemitism this week as he faces falling approval for the way he's handled the Israel-Hamas war and as pro-Palestinian protests spread on college campuses across the country.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:24:17]

DEAN: This week President Biden will address antisemitism in a speech at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial. It comes against the backdrop of growing unrest that has spread across college campuses. Protesters calling for an end to the war in Gaza and for schools to divest from entities linked to Israel.

CNN senior political analyst and senior editor at "The Atlantic," Ron Brownstein, joins us now.

Ron, how politically fraught of a moment is this for Biden?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, it's a very difficult moment and to some extent one that I think he has created -- large extent he has created for himself. I think his posture on the protests themselves that he has indicated so far and he's likely to repeat this week does put him, you know, in the majority in the mainstream of public opinion, defending the right to protest, but criticizing the excesses, the antisemitic excesses, or even anti- American excesses of some of the protests.

[19:25:13]

That's a comfortable place for him. He was not really part of this '60s generation. He talks about, you know, walking in a suit past protests in the late '60s. He's a little older than that. His problem is, is that I think the protests are more a symptom than a cause of the problem. I mean, the real problem is that a substantial portion of the Democratic coalition and a substantial portion of young voters are deeply alienated from the Israeli conduct of the war in Gaza and from the way Biden has responded to it and enabled it.

You know, you're looking at three-quarters of young voters in the Institute of Politics poll say they disapprove of the way he's handled the war. So I think he can position yourself vis-a-vis the protests effectively, but in so doing, he only exacerbates the other problem he's got, which is this alienation, particularly among younger voters.

DEAN: And so, yes, let's talk about those younger voters. You mentioned the Institute of Politics poll, and in that same poll, there's no doubt they are not happy with the way he is handling this war in Gaza at all based on those numbers. But then when they asked them to rank the most important issues, this one came up, I think as number 15.

So what does that mean? How does that all shake out when we -- when everyone goes to the polls in November and we looked to see who is going to be president?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, look, I mean, you know, that's right. In this poll, this rank relatively low among the priorities of young people. I think the problem for Biden here is that it's coming in an environment in which he's already facing headwinds with young people. I mean, he did not perform well with them in the primaries in 2020. They rallied around him in the general election against Trump.

But his approval rating among them has been lackluster ever since. And I think this war and the way he has approached it is really just one more brick on the load for him that he's carrying with those younger voters. I mean, he's really struggling in a lot of polls. Other poll is better than a lot of the public polls, but still showed him underperforming from 2020, and he may have a big struggle getting back to where he was in 2020, given everything that's going on including in Gaza.

DEAN: What do you think his goal is in delivering this keynote address at the Holocaust Memorial? We have these pro-Palestinian protests spreading all across college campuses and we're going to hear from him in a couple of days.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Look, I think in, you know, the likelihood is that he is going to stick to the line that he has held so far, which is to say that protest is, you know, perfectly American. It's sort of in our DNA, but there are excesses and it can't veer into violence. It should not veer into antisemitism. It certainly should not veer into anti- Americanism. He's trying to hold what Arthur Schlesinger once called the vital center on this issue.

And as I said, I actually think on the issue of protest itself, he is probably in a pretty safe position politically. The problem is affirming that position is just kind of salt in the wound for those younger voters who are alienated on him about the war. Ultimately, I think his policy toward the war is the real issue here and the question of whether he can repair the breaches in the Democratic coalition over that, I think is in the long run going to be more important than kind of finding a relatively defensible centrist position on the protests itself.

DEAN: Right. Because we've seen this issue drives such a wedge into the Democratic Party. I mean, you make a solid point which is, in the end, he just needs to make sure that the Democratic Party can come back together.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Look, you know, this is a big week, Jessica. You know, earlier this year as a reflection of that discontent, a group of roughly 20 Democratic senators pressured Biden into agreeing to release a report by May 8th, that's this Wednesday, on whether Israel is in fact using U.S. weapons in accordance with international law which Amnesty International just said they are not, and whether Israel is cooperating with the provision of international aid.

When Cindy McCain, who is now the head of the World Food organization at the U.N., says famine is spreading in northern Gaza. So, you know, Biden has been certainly more critical of Netanyahu and the way they have conducted the war in rhetoric. He's been very reluctant to impose any real consequences. There's a lot of unease in the Democratic coalition under the hood about that.

He is trying to walk a tight rope between his own instincts, which were formed really 50 years ago to kind of reflexively support Israel and the growing criticism within his coalition. And I think this is just another critical moment toward that longer-range issue, which, as I said, I think is a bigger question than how he orients vis-a-vis the protests is what he does on the policy itself, how he handles the war itself, and whether he can heal any of the breaches in the party, which I think are only going to increase the longer this goes on.

[19:30:08]

DEAN: Right. And this as they're trying to get a deal, the Biden administration working very hard to try to get a deal in Cairo between Israel and Hamas for that very reason.

Ron Brownstein, thanks so much. Great to see you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.

DEAN: Still ahead, South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem has been defending shooting and killing her dog. Now, she is suggesting President Biden's bite-prone dog should be put down, too.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:35:14]

DEAN: South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem once considered a top potential running mate for Donald Trump is now defending herself after revealing in a new book why she shot and killed her 14 month-old dog, Cricket. Noem said, she is not retracting anything after facing backlash from both Democrats and Republicans.

Today, she was also asked about her suggestion in the book that President Biden's bite-prone German Shepherd, Commander should meet the same fate as Cricket.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. KRISTI NOEM (R-SD): Reason that the story is in the book because people need to understand who I am and some of those difficult decisions.

Joe Biden's dog has attacked 24 Secret Service people, so how many people is enough people to be attacked and dangerously hurt before you make a decision on a dog?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Joining me now is former Republican congressman and 2020 presidential candidate, Joe Walsh.

Joe, good to have you here. Is this a case study in what not to do if you want to be considered for vice president?

JOE WALSH (R), FORMER US REPRESENTATIVE: Jessica, good to be with you.

Actually, it may be, but I also think it is a case study in where my former political party is. Look, I served with Kristi Noem. She wasn't this way, eight, nine, 10 years ago.

Every one of my former Republican colleagues, Jessica, has learned to be like Trump, to be cruel, to lie, to never, ever apologize, to never back down. She is trying to be like Trump.

If i shoot my dog, if I say that Biden's dog should be shot, that's a really tough, cruel thing to say, and that's what Trump says and that's what the Republican voters want to hear. They've all sadly, all of my former colleagues, Jessica, have learned from Trump.

They've all learned to imitate Trump because Trump has gotten away with it all of these years.

DEAN: This is just such an extreme version of that to talk about shooting animals and think that that gets you a stamp of approval.

WALSH: You're exactly right. I think this is -- look, she went a step too far. This was Kristi Noem thinking, I can -- I am going to thump my chest and I am going to come across as a badass cruel person who shoots my dog and never backs down and never apologizes for it. She went too far because even most Republicans don't like and find repulsive the notion of shooting your dog.

I think she went too far for Trump, but again, the lesson for every American listening to us right now is this. Cruelty does sell in the Republican Party. Kristi Noem might have gone a little bit too far, but the base loves cruelty and they love dishonesty and that's what Trump feeds them.

DEAN: And she was also pressed about another bizarre passage in her book in which she falsely claimed that she met the North Korean leader while she was in Congress and she wrote: "I remember when I met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. I am sure he underestimated me, having no clue about my experience staring down a little tyrants (I had been a children's pastor, after all)."

And here she is talking more about it this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARGARET BRENNAN, CBS NEWS: Did you meet Kim Jong-un?

NOEM: You know, as soon as this was brought to my attention, I certainly made some changes and looked at this passage and I have met with many, many world leaders, I have traveled around the world.

BRENNAN: So you did not meet with Kim Jong-un? That's what you're saying.

NOEM: Yes, I've met with many, many world leaders, many world leaders. I've traveled around the world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: She just can't answer the question.

WALSH: Jessica, how pathetic. She couldn't say no. She was asked twice: Did you meet with him? And she couldn't say no.

Again, this makes me really sad because this is evidence that all of my former colleagues have learned two very bad things from Trump to lie, she lied, and Republicans have learned to lie like Trump because again, Trump gets away with it.

But then Jessica, when you're caught in a lie never, ever, ever admit or acknowledge you lied. Never be ashamed about lying.

I mean, that is what she is trying to do there. She is following Trump's playbook. It is really sad.

DEAN: And so what happens? Because we do see people contorting themselves also on the issue of will you accept the election results in 2024? That's another one that's been very hard for some of these contenders for Trump's vice presidential -- to-be his vice president.

[19:40:10]

And yet, Mike Pence did everything he possibly could to do it right and then just wouldn't try to overturn an election or not certify an election, and a mob was coming for him.

Why do you think these candidates, these potential candidates and elected officials what to do this?

WALSH: Tim Scott, Jessica, my former colleague, was as six times today he would accept the results of the 2024 election, six times he was asked and he wouldn't say it.

Look, this is not shooting your puppy. This is big stuff. Make no mistake, Donald Trump is attacking our democracy. He is doing now again what he did in 2020, refusing to say he will accept the results of an election if he loses. That is a direct traitorous attack on our democracy.

But Jessica, Tim Scott, and all of the others are doing the same thing. My God, this is this is so scary and this is so wrong and the country really needs to wake up to it because as you said, it is not just Trump now, it is the whole party.

DEAN: All right, Joe Walsh for us. Thanks so much for joining us.

WALSH: Thanks. Jessica.

DEAN: Still ahead, "The struggle is real." That's from a father of five who is working two jobs and still cannot afford to put food on the table and he is not alone.

We are going to take a look at the real economy. That's next.

You're on the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:46:15]

DEAN: A father of five telling CNN he cannot put enough food on the table for his family, even as he works two full-time jobs. Out of US households that say they are having trouble feeding their families, more than half say they are already working full time. CNN's Alisyn Camerota has more on the real economy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One from either or --

KARLA LEROUX, RELIES ON FOOD PANTRY FOR GROCERIES: Okay, I have a family of four.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Family of four?

LEROUX: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Then you get one large or two from --

LEROUX: That sounds great.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go.

LEROUX: Thank you so much.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're very welcome.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): This is Karla's weekly trip. Grocery shopping for her family.

CAMEROTA (on camera): So is there any limit on what you can get?

LEROUX: Yea, right here, you get, it says right here --

CAMEROTA: Oh.

LEROUX: -- things you get one of each.

CAMEROTA (voice over): Karla has been coming to this food bank in Enfield, Connecticut, where everything is free since 2021.

LEROUX: Yes --

CAMEROTA (voice over): That's the year she had a heart attack, lost her job and could no longer afford the basics.

CAMEROTA (on camera): What was happening before you started coming here?

LEROUX: I was borrowing, getting money from family members. So I found out about this place and I'm like, oh, let's try it. And it was great. It saved me.

CAMEROTA (voice over): Every customer has a different story. Many once considered themselves middle class or even well off. Though inflation is generally subsiding, groceries now cost 33 percent more than they did at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Today, more than one in 10 Americans live in a household where there is not enough to eat in the past week, according to the Census Bureau.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What would you like in the fruit section?

KHAMPHAY KHEN, RELIES ON FOOD PANTRY FOR GROCERIES: I grew up very poor. I didn't want my kids to grow up like that, so I want to make sure that I work two jobs and I would work seven days.

CAMEROTA: You work seven days to make ends meet.

KHEN: Yes, seven days.

CAMEROTA: For your five children.

KHEN: Yes.

CAMEROTA (voice over): Khamphay worked 80 hours a week. Then he was diagnosed with muscular dystrophy. As his health declined, so did his work hours and his income.

KHEN: I still do work. I kind of still work two jobs now.

CAMEROTA (on camera): Have you been surprised by any of the fellow customers that you've seen?

KHEN: I've seen some people here that have been financially well off, like myself. But, you know, the struggle is real. Everybody is trying to make ends meet.

JASON JAKUBOWSKI, CEO, CONNECTICUT FOODSHARE: The people that we're seeing in our lines, the super majority of them that are not senior citizens, are working. They have jobs. They sometimes have two jobs.

CAMEROTA (voice over): Jason Jakubowski runs Connecticut Foodshare, a massive food bank that distributes free food to 600 food pantries across the state.

JAKUBOWSKI: One of the tough things that we have here in Connecticut is that we are the richest state in the country, but there's also a tremendous amount of poverty.

CAMEROTA (voice over): Jakubowski says the need for food here has never been greater, 10 percent of households in the state are on SNAP, the government program formerly known as Food Stamps.

JAKUBOWSKI: I've been here seven years, and this is definitely the most difficult time in that seven years.

CAMEROTA (on camera): So explain that. Why is this the most difficult time?

JAKUBOWSKI: Yes, I think that during the pandemic, there was obviously a tremendous amount of need. You had pandemic-era free food coming from the federal government, unemployment benefits, moratorium on student loan payments, moratorium on housing payments. All of those things have gone away.

CAMEROTA (voice over): Those pandemic benefits, which Congress let expire, had pushed poverty to its lowest level on record.

CAMEROTA (on camera): Since unemployment has gone down and things have improved, why is the need the same?

JAKUBOWSKI: What really is happening is that the cost of living in general has gone up, specifically the cost of groceries have gone up.

CAMEROTA: No one knows this better than Molly Devanney. Her family has been in the grocery store business for 90 years.

MOLLY DEVANNEY, VICE PRESIDENT, HIGHLAND PARK MARKET: It's more challenging to do business today than ever before.

CAMEROTA: Is that right?

DEVANNEY: It is.

CAMEROTA: Why?

DEVANNEY: It really is. The struggle of pricing, the cost of products, the cost of labor, everything is going through the roof.

CAMEROTA: And is this a more emotional time because of this?

DEVANNEY: Yes, I think so, because people are struggling. You see them struggling, and you want to help. And when you can't lower the price, it's heartbreaking.

[19:50:04]

JAKUBOWSKI: We absolutely have the ability here in the United States to solve hunger. I'll tell you two things that Congress can do tomorrow. They can increase the eligibility for SNAP, and they can pass a child tax credit. It worked during the pandemic to help keep people out of poverty, and it would work again.

CAMEROTA (voice over): For now, Karla and Khampay plan to keep relying on the generosity of this food bank.

KHEN: I think in the end, it's not about pride, it's about what you need.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Alrighty.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: All right, our thanks to Alisyn Camerota for that.

Still ahead, a grim update on the search for three missing tourists in Mexico.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[19:55:18] DEAN: New details tonight from Mexico where three murder victims were found in Baja, California during the search for three missing surfers: An American, and two Australians.

Officials say the three victims they found had been shot in the head. Authorities in Mexico have not yet confirmed whether they are the missing tourists. Officials say three Mexican citizens have been arrested on allegations of kidnapping.

Australia is under siege from climate change. The Great Barrier Reef's corals are literally being cooked by the warming water. Aboveground, wildfires and floods are destroying homes and threatening native species like kangaroos and koala.

For this week's edition of "The Whole Story," CNN senior international correspondent, Ivan Watson embarks on a journey across Australia, including out on a remote southern tip of the Great Barrier Reef.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER GASH, PILOT: The next one is down a bit, you got it.

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Got it.

GASH: Yes.

WATSON: Wow.

GASH: Welcome.

WATSON: Thank you. That was incredible.

WATSON (voice over): My pilot is Peter Gash. He is not just a pilot, he basically owns the island leasing it from the Australian government and running an eco-resort here with his family.

GASH: We made it our lives' work. My wife and I married. I went and learned to fly airplanes so I could bring people here.

WATSON (voice over): Peter wastes no time taking me out to see the island's underwater menagerie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: Wow. Ivan Watson joining us now. Ivan, tell us more about Peter in that island.

WATSON: I mean, what a remarkable place. This tiny little island. I mean, it is bisected by a grass air strip that is only about 600 meters long. It gives you a sense of how small it is, and Peter and his family have helped reforest it.

It was a barren rock. It had been mined and it has been growing. So it is kind of an environmental success story, except while we were there and snorkeling and coral reefs next to sea turtles and reef sharks, we saw signs of this very disturbing trend of coral bleaching where record high ocean temperatures were cooking and killing coral, and that was a trend that I saw on several other reefs along the Great Barrier Reef, this sprawling marine habitat, the size of Italy off the coast of Australia.

And in the weeks after our visit in February, the height of the Australian summer, the Australian government announced that the Great Barrier Reef was in fact suffering from a mass bleaching event, not only affecting that area, but it has been worldwide over the course of the last year because of those record high temperatures with coral being bleached and killed in the Caribbean, off the coast of Florida, all the way to Australia.

So amazing things to see underwater, but also very bittersweet recognizing that according to scientists' predictions, these reefs will no longer exist by the time my daughter is an adult, she won't get to see the kind of things that I was so fortunate to see.

DEAN: Now that is sobering.

You also went to Kangaroo Island where tens of thousands of kangaroos and koalas call the nature preserve home there. But there have -- because their habitats have been destroyed, I am thinking back to those fires. I know you held a koala bear that had been burned in those fires.

WATSON: That's true. Kangaroo Island was one of the areas that was so horribly burned in these horrific forest fires or bushfires as they are called in Australia.

In the Black Summer of 2020, half of the island burned down and people lost their lives, too, and homes were destroyed and the fires also raged across other big parts of Australia.

It also killed off more than half of the koala population on Kangaroo Island. I got to cuddle a koala named Pearl. She was burned and scarred, survived those fires and these forest fires and floods are being exacerbated by climate change and that is part of our special.

DEAN: All right, we will be watching. Ivan Watson, thanks so much for that reporting.

And just a reminder, that all-new episode of "The Whole Story" with Anderson Cooper, it is one whole hour, one whole story is next only here on CNN.

More than a million-and-a-half fans came out for a free Madonna concert in Brazil last night. The Queen of Pop, wrapping up her Celebration World Tour in Rio De Janeiro, where fans waited for hours if not days, to secure a good spot near Copacabana Beach.

The 65-year-old artist performing for more than two hours. It is Madonna's biggest live concert crowd ever.

And I want to thank you so much for joining me this evening. I am Jessica Dean. Have a great night and a great week. We will see you back here next weekend.

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