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Biden Faces Growing Pressure To End Reelection Campaign; Trump Holds First Rally Since Assassination Attempt; Trump's Running Mate Argues Against Foreign Wars. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired July 21, 2024 - 03:30   ET

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

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[03:00:00]

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello and welcome to all of you watching us here in the United States, Canada, and all around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

Pressure is mounting on U.S. President Joe Biden to step aside in his bid for re-election as more and more Democrats in Congress are calling for him to drop out.

That as Republican nominee and former President Donald Trump holds his first campaign rally with his new running mate, J.D. Vance. Vance has been an outspoken critic of U.S. support for Ukraine, while in the Senate. We'll look at how that could impact the war.

We are now just 107 days away from the U.S. presidential election, and the race looks very different for the two leading parties. Uncertainty hangs over the Democrats as pressure builds on President Biden to drop his re-election bid. That's in stark contrast to the Republican Party, where the Trump-Vance campaign is in full swing. The former president held his first rally on Saturday since surviving an assassination attempt a week earlier. It was also Trump's first campaign rally, with running mate J.D. Vance, who told the crowd in Michigan, it's still a little bit weird to see his name on the signs alongside Trump's.

Now, in contrast, Biden spent another day in isolation, recovering from COVID in Delaware. At least 35 Democratic lawmakers are now publicly urging him to drop out of the race. But more than three weeks after his disastrous debate performance, the president's campaign says he is standing firm. They say he's the only Democrat who beat Trump before, and they'll do it again.

Priscilla Alvarez reports.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: President Biden is facing a fresh wave of Democratic lawmakers who say that he should step aside and allow someone else to be the Democratic candidate and nominee. They remain unconvinced that the president is up to the task of taking on former President Donald Trump this election year and continue to pour out letters asking for him to drop out of the race.

But over the course of all of this happening, the president is behind closed doors as he is trying to recover from COVID and has been self- isolating at his residence in Delaware. Sources telling CNN that the president remains in touch with his close advisers as they grapple with what has become an increasingly challenging moment for this campaign, not only hearing from Democratic lawmakers, but also donors, allies, and, in a letter obtained by CNN, former national security officials and high ranking foreign policy experts who say that it's too risky for the president to stay in the race, particularly because it could allow former President Donald Trump to take a second term and, in turn, potentially have a toll on national security.

So, the campaign, however, is remaining firm. They say that the president is going to stay in the race and that there are no plans for that to change. They also say that once the president recovers from COVID that he will hit the campaign trail again.

Now, the vice president was on the trail. She had a fundraiser in Massachusetts where she raised more than $2 million. Aides tell me that the vice president and the president remain close, that there's no daylight between the two, despite some lawmakers floating her name as a replacement to lead the party's ticket, but the campaign saying that this is the Biden-Harris ticket that they remain on course, even as it becomes even more challenging for them to stay afloat as Democratic lawmakers continue to ask the president to withdraw from the race.

Priscilla Alvarez, CNN, traveling with the president.

BRUNHUBER: So, while some Democrats are demanding change, others like progressive Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, are speaking out in support of Biden as the party's nominee. Barbara Lee of California is also supporting the president and she says he's the strongest candidate and the Biden-Harris ticket can and will win. Here she is.

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REP. BARBARA LEE (D-CA): He has a record to run on. He and Vice President Harris, they've delivered. They've lowered costs for people. They've been fighting for people, fighting for reproductive freedom, fighting to make sure that insulin is capped at $35. So, they have a record and they beat Donald Trump in the past.

Now, that only is an indicator of what they will do in the future. I'm sticking with the president. If he changes his mind, of course, the person who would be the next person would be Vice President Harris.

[03:05:01]

But I believe that President Biden is in this to win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: All right, turning to the Republican campaign and the first rally Donald Trump has held with his new running mate, J.D. Vance, Trump told a large crowd in Michigan on Saturday that he took a bullet for democracy.

CNN's Kristen Holmes has more from Grand Rapids.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Former President Donald Trump spoke in Grand Rapids, Michigan, for roughly two hours. It was an all-over-the-place kind of speech. He seemed very much in his element in this crowd that was thousands of people cheering for him.

Now, he did touch on some issues that would affect people in Michigan, this critical battleground state that he won in 2016, lost in 2020, and, really, both Republicans and Democrats believe is crucial to winning back the White House. He talked about getting rid of electric vehicles. He talked about boosting up auto workers, bringing more jobs to Michigan. And he also talked about ending this kind of flood of immigration, quote/unquote, sealing the border was what he used.

Now, the other thing I want to point out is this is the first campaign rally with his new vice presidential nominee, J.D. Vance. And it is important to note that it was in Michigan, because part of the appeal of J.D. Vance was that he could possibly reach voters in places like Michigan, Wisconsin, obviously Ohio, which is now more of a red state. So, votes aren't super needed. But in Pennsylvania, these are all critical swing states because of his working class background. We did hear from J.D. Vance. We saw them interact on the stage.

Now, the other portion I want to actually show you or have you listen to is when he talked about Project 2025. They believe him, they being Donald Trump and his team, that Project 2025 is an actual liability to him, this, of course, being the think tank Heritage Foundation's transition approach, which has really come under fire for a lot of its controversial and far right policies. Take a listen.

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DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Like some. on the right, severe right, came up with this Project '25, and I don't even know. I mean, some of them, I know who they are, but they're very, very conservative, just like you have, they're sort of the opposite of the radical left, okay? You have the radical left, and you have the radical right, and they come up with this -- I don't know what the hell it is. It's Project '25. He's involved in Project -- and then they read some of the things, and they are extreme. I mean, they're seriously extreme. I but I don't know anything about it.

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HOLMES: Now, Donald Trump has tried to distance himself multiple times. At one point, he actually said that he didn't know anyone involved in Project 2025, which is not true. Many of the people who are part of the various groups that are part of 2025 worked in his last administration. Many of them are still current advisers, are still currently friendly with Donald Trump and a lot of them are suspected to be part of a second administration. However, he has said that those policies, or some of them at least, are too far, too extreme.

Again, it's not just Donald Trump's team who believes this is a vulnerability for Donald Trump. Joe Biden's team has also been seizing on this, running ads, attacking Trump, and Project 2025.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, Grand Rapids, Michigan.

BRUNHUBER: All right, to the Middle East now, where Iran is condemning Israeli airstrikes on Houthi targets in Yemen Saturday in warning of a wider escalation in the region. Yemen's Houthi-run Ministry of Health says at least three people are dead and another 87 wounded after Israel struck the port of Hodeidah. Israel's Prime Minister says Iran was using the port to help Houthi rebels.

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BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: The port we attacked is not an innocent port. It was used for military purposes. It was used as an entry point for deadly weapons supplied to the Houthis by Iran. They used this weapon to attack Israel, to attack the countries of the region, to attack an international shipping lane, one of the most important shipping lanes in the world.

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BRUNHUBER: Israel's military said early Saturday it successfully intercepted a missile fired from Yemen, adding that the projectile didn't cross into Israeli territory. Houthi rebels confirmed they did launch ballistic missiles towards Israel.

Journalist Elliott Gotkine joins me now from London with more. So, Elliott, a first ever attack in Yemen by Israel. It seems as though this war is taking a dangerous new turn here.

ELLIOTT GOTKINE, JOURNALIST: Things certainly seem to be heating up, Kim. This is, what, some 1,800 kilometers or more than 1,000 miles away. Israel carrying out those airstrikes, as you say, on the port of Hodeidah, which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself says was being used to supply the Houthis with weapons, with deadly weapons, which were being used not just against Israel, but also against international shipping and other countries around the world. And so this is what Israel did on Saturday.

This morning, as you say, the Houthis have said that they fired a number of ballistic missiles towards the southern Israeli city on the Red Sea of Eilat.

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Israel itself says that it intercepted a surface-to-surface projectile, a surface-to-surface missile, which it took out with its Arrow 3 aerial defense system, and that sirens sounded simply as a precaution, and that this projectile, and none of the other ones that the Houthis say that they fired earlier today, entered Israeli airspace.

But certainly, things do seem to be heating up a little bit, but I don't think things are going to heat up to the extent that we see on the northern border, for example, between Israel and another of the Iranian-backed groups, Hezbollah, of course, the Houthis, much further away.

I think what we may see is an increase in the intensity and the attempts by the Houthis to successfully get drones or surface-to- surface missiles through Israel's defense systems to try to strike Israeli targets, as they successfully did on Friday night when a drone managed to get through, hitting an apartment block, killing a 50-year- old Israeli man who'd only moved to the country two years ago from Belarus, and that was just 100 meters or so away from the U.S. Consulate.

And indeed, the IDF spokesman, Daniel Hagari, saying that the reason why Israel struck on Saturday and hadn't struck the Houthis before, despite some 200 projectiles or so being fired by the Houthis towards Israel, was because an Israeli citizen had been killed.

Antonio Guterres, the U.N. secretary general, calling for, in his words, utmost restraint but there seems to be no sign of that, Kim.

BRUNHUBER: So, with all of these various fronts heating up, Elliott, in the meantime, Prime Minister Netanyahu visiting Washington, D.C. What are we expecting?

GOTKINE: Yes. So, for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he's due to speak before Congress on this is on Wednesday. This will be a record not just for him, but for any world leader. This will be the fourth time that he's addressing Congress, more even than Winston Churchill. So, on a personal note, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be very happy to be going to Washington. It also shows that he still has the ear of Israel's most important ally.

No doubt he will be thanking the U.S. for his continued support in Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip in the wake of the terrorist attacks of October the 7th. He will also be, again, no doubt calling for the release of all of the Israeli hostages still being held in the Gaza Strip, around 120, about a third of whom are believed to be dead.

One imagines that for Netanyahu as well, he will also be perhaps looking ahead to the future when perhaps he hopes to be able to rekindle his bromance with former President Donald Trump, if, of course, Donald Trump wins in November's elections. The two had a very close relationship. And it's almost kind of an -- it's not really a secret that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seems happier with Donald Trump in the White House than he does with President Biden. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: Yes, absolutely. All right, Elliott Gotkine in London, thank you so much.

Computer systems are coming back online after a global tech outage, but the fallout is far from over. More than 2,000 domestic and international flights in the U.S. were canceled Saturday, and more than 8,000 delayed. The most affected airline is Delta, which is now putting on hold its unaccompanied minors program until Monday.

But in Europe, officials say the situation is largely back to normal at British and French airports, as well as the U.K. train service. Many international air carriers say their systems are back or close to being restored, including Turkish, Jetstar Japan, and Hong Kong Express Airlines.

Microsoft says the outage affected less than 1 percent of Windows machines, which were hit by a faulty software update from the company called CrowdStrike. Its CEO says a fix has already been sent out. One observer told CNN's Alex Marquardt some computer systems may not be fully up and running for a while.

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JORDAN ROBERTSON, CYBERSECURITY REPORTER, BLOOMBERG: What you have here is a minisculely small piece of code that has taken out a big majority of the world's computers. And today, we've learned how many computers that is. That's 8.5 million computers were taken out by this bug. It's important to note that these are not just 8.5 million ordinary computers. These are some of the biggest companies in the world, most sensitive computers. They install CrowdStrike software on these machines because they need to be protected.

And what you have here is maybe a line, maybe two of code, that was bad, that did something it wasn't supposed to. And it caused these computers to glitch, and it caused them to crash kind of irreparably. And the reason this problem is likely to go on for weeks, if not months, is these machines, all 8.5 million of them, need to be fixed manually. An I.T. technician needs to go out to each one of these machines and manually update them. There's no other way to do it.

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And in an era of remote work, that's going to take a long, long time.

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BRUNHUBER: Russia claims its air defenses scored multiple hits after a Ukrainian drone attack. We'll have details on that.

Plus, Donald Trump's running mate is known for opposition to sending aid to Ukraine, but now he appears to be making the case against involvement in most conflicts overseas. That's ahead.

Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: Russia claims it has foiled a wave of Ukrainian drone attacks Sunday morning. The statement says eight Ukrainian drones were shot down Sunday morning, including three over the western Belgorod region. Three more were reportedly intercepted over the Black Sea, but there's no word on whether the two remaining drones were allegedly struck.

Donald Trump's running mate, J.D. Vance, is arguing against U.S. involvement in foreign wars. Vance is known for his opposition to Ukraine aid, and he said Kyiv should negotiate with Moscow because the U.S. can't afford to keep supporting it.

During a rally in Michigan with Trump on Saturday, Vance said the U.S. should try to stay away from fighting overseas as much as possible.

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SEN. J.D. VANCE (R-OH), VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: There's nothing radical about having a strong national security, that when we go to war, we punch and we punch hard, but being cautious and not trying to get America involved in every far-flung corner and conflict of the world. Sometimes my friends, it just is none of our business and we ought to stay out of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: For more, we're joined by Oleksiy Goncharenko, a Ukrainian parliament member, and he's speaking to us from Odessa. Thank you so much for being here with us.

So, in the last Trump administration, there was Vice President Mike Pence, who was perhaps a moderating influence on Trump. This time, his pick for vice president, J.D. Vance, he's been one of the leading opponents of the new assistance package to Ukraine. He's literally said, I don't really care what happens to Ukraine one way or another. So, what do you think the signal's for Ukraine?

OLEKSIY GONCHARENKO, UKRAINIAN PARLIAMENT MEMBER: Hello. You know, some time ago, Senator Vance was one of the most vocal critics of Donald Trump. And now he is vice president candidate for Donald Trump and on the same ticket with him. So, , I think it's more rhetorics. I just want to remind you Speaker Johnson also was one of those who are not supporting, are not voting for Ukraine's support in U.S. Congress. But after he became a speaker, he clearly changed his mind, and now he is one of the strongest supporters.

I think that support of Ukraine is in the best interest of the United States of America. And whoever will be the president of the United States or vice president, they will realize it. That's what I think. Definitely, some of the rhetorics of Mr. Vance and Mr. Trump is concerning, but at the same time, I remember that it was the administration of Donald Trump which first sent lethal weapons to Ukraine, Javelins, when we were fighting with Russians. And so he was the first to do this.

So, I hope that if Mr. Trump will be elected together with Mr. Vance, they will change their mind and they will support Ukraine understanding that Ukraine is probably today the most valuable ally of the United States in Europe and a very needed one.

BRUNHUBER: Interesting. While, you have a very hopeful outlook, I guess, President Zelenskyy may as well, I mean, we had a phone call now between Trump and Zelenskyy who said he and Trump agreed to meet face to face to talk about peace, but they have very different ideas about peace. Do you think there's any hope that they could come to an agreement given everything that Trump has said about Ukraine and Putin?

GONCHARENKO: I think it's absolutely possible to find agreement. And, you know, one thing about Mr. Trump, I think, is that he is unpredictable, and what he exactly will do with the Russian-Ukrainian war. I think even he doesn't know for the moment, because he is absolutely another story. He is in presidential race, very tough, as we see. So, he is really not, I think, paying much attention to this. But if he will be elected, he will need to deal with this.

And I am sure that President Trump, he likes to win. And abandoning Ukraine will be a clear defeat. And that can become his own Afghanistan. So, I don't believe that he wants this. I am sure that he wants victories and he doesn't want billions of dollars already spent of American taxpayers to go to rebels. He doesn't want to embolden Putin or Xi Jinping and so on and so on.

BRUNHUBER: Well, I mean, he likes to win, you say, of Donald Trump. And if polls are anything to go by, it's looking more and more likely that Trump will win the presidency. We heard President Zelenskyy in his address to the nation this week, he struck, struck a, a bit of a different tone. He kind of hinted at a willingness to negotiate with Russia. Do you think those two things are related, maybe a way to reach out to a potential Trump administration?

GONCHARENKO: It's hard to say. But, in general, there is nothing bad in negotiations themselves. And we have negotiations with the Russians about exchange of prisoners of war or about grinding in the beginning of the war. But it only showed that Russia understands one language, language of force.

So, the question is about what is the subject of negotiation and do we have enough force to make Russia listen? That is in the hands of the United States and U.S. administration, because still now we are very thankful to everything which administration of President Biden did, and U.S. Congress, on bipartisan way -- in bipartisan way. But today, we are receiving the support enough not to lose, but not enough to win.

[03:25:00]

And this is a huge problem.

BRUNHUBER: Finally, in addition to working with a potential Trump administration, there must also be sort of a parallel effort to get more support from other allies with the assumption that the U.S. support may decrease or get cut off entirely.

GONCHARENKO: Yes, that's the question to Europe. I mean, Europe can't just rely on the United States of America. You just can't rely on what's going on on another side of the ocean. And Europe should be really strong and militarize itself. I'm sorry, being fat (ph) doesn't mean being strong. And Europe should be strong to protect itself, no matter what is happening in other parts of the world.

BRUNHUBER: We'll have to leave it there, but always good to hear from you, Oleksiy Goncharenko. Thank you so much for being here with us. All right, turning now to Bangladesh, where the military enforced curfew brought the capital of Dhaka, home to 20 million people, to a near standstill on Saturday. Recent clashes between student protesters and police have reportedly killed dozens and injured thousands more, according to data from hospitals across the country.

The unrest is seeing international spillover as well. On Saturday, people from Bangladesh could be seen crossing the border into India to escape the violence. And in the UAE, which has a sizable Bangladeshi population, a number of Bangladeshi nationals were arrested and charged with rioting against their home country. That's according to the UAE attorney general.

NASA's Curiosity rover made a discovery on Mars that scientists are calling mind blowing, that rocks made of pure elemental sulfur. The one ton craft cracked open a rock revealing yellowish green crystals never before seen on the red planet. Scientists are now on a mission to explain the presence of the element and what it says about the history of Mars.

All right, we're going to take a quick break. For those of you watching us here in the U.S. and Canada, I'll have more CNN NEWSROOM in a moment.

For our international viewers, Connecting Africa is next.

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BRUNHUBER: Welcome back to all of you watching us here in the United States and Canada. I'm Kim Brunhuber. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

President Joe Biden is facing growing pressure to drop his re-election campaign with at least 35 Democratic lawmakers now urging him to step aside. But as he recovers from COVID in Delaware, Biden says he's looking forward to getting back on the campaign trail next week.

A source says he's seething at former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as one of her longtime allies joined calls for Biden to exit the race. So, as division grows within the party over President Biden's future, Pelosi headlined a unity dinner in North Carolina. The former House speaker avoided speaking about the controversy over who the party should nominate.

CNN's Dianne Gallagher has more from the event.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Though she took the stage to Bunny Rates, let's give him something to talk about. Former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi didn't really touch on the topic that's had everyone talking about her the past couple weeks. Heavy on party unity, Democratic values, and down ballot races in North Carolina, Pelosi addressed about 900 Democrats on Saturday night in Raleigh at the state party's biggest fundraiser of the year. Long dubbed the Unity Dinner, though, it's very far from that at the top of the ticket for the Democratic Party right now. Still, Pelosi's keynote didn't really touch on that. Instead, she addressed accomplishments of the Biden-Harris administration, even as sources tell CNN that President Joe Biden is seething at Pelosi after sources told CNN that she was closely linked to a fresh round of statements from lawmakers on Friday that encouraged President Joe Biden to step down and aside from his campaign.

She instead on Saturday night focused on party unity and democratic values, comparing them with the Republican platform, often referring to former President Trump as what's his name throughout her speech. She said that she felt that Democrats could come together and when not just the battleground state of North Carolina that the Biden campaign has already invested heavily in both financially and through staffing, but also win the election in 2024.

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REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): I have three no's. No wasted time, no underutilized resources, and no regrets the day after the election that we could have done more. Are you ready for a great Democratic victory? I thought so.

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GALLAGHER: Now, this is a fundraiser for North Carolina candidates, and there were a slew of them on stage, including the Democrats candidate for the most closely watched governor's race in the nation, the attorney general, Josh Stein, who was facing off against Republican, the lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson, a close closely- aligned Trump ally. They also, though, heard from their current governor, the Democrat Roy Cooper, whose name has been tossed around by Democratic pundits as well as prominent Democrats as a possible running mate for Vice President Kamala Harris if, in fact, President Joe Biden was to step aside.

Dianne Gallagher, CNN, Raleigh, North Carolina.

BRUNHUBER: Earlier, I spoke to Michael Genovese, a political analyst and author of the book, "The Modern Presidency," and he told me that President Biden is hanging on by the skin of his teeth. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL GENOVESE, POLITICAL ANALYST: He is under assault from his own party, but it's decision time for the Democrats. And, you know, there's blood in the water and the sharks are circling. Biden may not be able to hang on. Because it started as persuasion to try to get him to leave, then it became push.

This coming week, it'll be shove. And can Biden hang on? With each passing minute, Biden's withdrawal becomes both more difficult but more necessary because the Republicans are energized and united. The Democrats are demoralized and divided. So I think this week is the week that they have to make some kind of a decision.

BRUNHUBER: You think push is going to turn to shove. I wonder who's going to be actually doing the shoving so far. Very few senior Democrats have, have dared to do that. But if Biden needed more persuasion, I want to point to a poll that was done a few days ago that suggests that Trump is doing better than ever. He's up five points nationally now and three across the key battleground states.

[03:35:02]

But you studied the presidency. So, put this into context for us. I mean, it's been, I understand, 20 years since a Republican presidential candidate has won the national popular vote. I mean, this could be a trouncing here.

GENOVESE: Well, the Democrats do very well with the popular vote, but the Electoral College has a more conservative bias, and that's why in 2000 and 2015, the candidate with the lesser votes got to be the president.

But for the Democrats, time is running out, they're losing ground, they're losing money, and they're losing opportunity. And it's been a huge distraction for them. And they appear to be in disarray, and that the optic of that is just devastating for the Democrats.

If the Democrats don't pull their act together, Donald Trump could win in what we will call a landslide, and we will claim and probably have a mandate to govern.

BRUNHUBER: That same poll I referenced has Donald Trump winning against Kamala Harris, though she does slightly better in the head-to- head. Is she in a no-win situation here, I mean, trying to back an unpopular president while also kind of trying to promote herself as a viable alternative? I mean, it seems almost impossible logistically to do both at the same time effectively.

GENOVESE: You know, I think she's been doing a very credible job because she's in a no-win situation in that she must support her president, and I think she really does genuinely support him. But she also has to know that just around the corner, they could tap her on the shoulder and say it's yours. So, she has to be prepared for that. That's the most likely alternative to Biden.

Other people are talking about having some kind of a condensed primary where you reboot the whole ticket. I think that option is pregnant with menace. It would cause chaos. It would look like a food fight. And I think the Democratic Party is already split. This could leave a lot of disgruntled losers to cause real trouble during the election.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: The Democrat Congressman from Pennsylvania has called on the director of the Secret Service to resign. Now, that comes as we're learning that Donald Trump's security detail complained to the Secret Service over the past two years that they weren't being provided with enough resources.

Now, all this follows intense scrutiny over how a sniper was able to get access to a rooftop from which he shot Trump in an assassination attempt. The spokesman for the Secret Service told CNN that the agency hasn't provided certain resources itself at times, but state or local partners are sometimes used in connection with the protectee, and stresses that no requests for extra security were denied for the Pennsylvania rally, but questions of confidence and competence remain.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Nobody mentioned it. Nobody said there was a problem. And I would have waited for 15. They could have said, let's wait for 15 minutes, 20 minutes, 5 minutes, something. Nobody said, I think that was a mistake. How did somebody get on that roof? And why wasn't he reported? Because people saw that he was on the roof.

And you had Trumpers screaming, a woman in the red shirt, she was screaming, there's a man on the roof. And then other people said, there's a man on the roof who's got a gun. And that was quite a bit before I walked onto the stage. So, you would have thought somebody would have done something about it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Amid the controversy over the security lapses at the rally, officials are still trying to determine the gunman's motive. Gloria Pazmino has the latest on the investigation.

GLORIA PAZMINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're learning new details about some evidence that was found inside Thomas Matthew Crooks' vehicle. According to law enforcement sources who have been carrying out this investigation, they were able to recover a drone in the vehicle and they believe that he was able to deploy the drone on Saturday morning.

Now, why is that information so critical? Well, it certainly suggests to a level of preparation and planning on Crooks' part being able to fly the drone over the location of the Saturday rally likely gave him a bird's eye view of where this event was set to take place and potentially helped him decide where to position himself. We know that he was on top of a roof where he had a direct view of the former president.

Now, we still don't know the motive behind this assassination attempt on former President Trump. We don't know what drove Crooks to commit this act of violence, but we do know something about the searches that he had carried out on the internet in the days prior to Saturday. He looked up information about both former President Donald Trump, as well as the current president, Joe Biden. He looked up information about the DNC and other high-profile politicians, including Congressman Hakeem Jeffries.

Another thing that we have learned in the last several days is information about the movements that Thomas Matthew Crooks made in the two days before the rally.

[03:40:09]

On Friday, he went to a local shooting range where he practiced firing, and on Saturday morning, he drove to a local Home Depot where he bought a ladder and to an ammunition store where he bought about 50 rounds of ammo.

We know that he then returned here to his home, grabbed the weapon, and then drove about an hour north of here where the rally was taking place.

Now, as I said, investigators still trying to piece together a full picture here, trying to determine what drove him to do this a week ago, if it was really driven purely by political ideology, or if this was really a crime of convenience and proximity, especially because they've also found that Crooks spent some time on the internet looking up information about Ethan Crumbley and his parents.

Now, Ethan Crumbley is a mass high school shooter who was convicted just recently along with his parents. We don't know why Crooks was looking up information about Ethan Crumbley and his parents. We do know that the weapon that he used on Saturday belonged to his father, along with several other weapons that were recovered here at the family home.

So, into the next week, as we look into next week and as this investigation continues to develop, certainly, investigators continuing to piece together the evidence, trying to come up with a motive, trying to determine exactly what drove Crooks to commit this act of violence.

In Bethel Park, Pennsylvania, Gloria Pazmino, CNN.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Still ahead, dangerous and potentially record breaking excessive heat continues to scorch parts of the U.S. Even overnight lows are up to 15 degrees above normal, offering little to no relief.

And it's not just the heat causing problems in Greece. Reservoirs are dry after months of little to no rain. We'll have a look at what's being done to solve the problem next here on CNN.

Stay with us.

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BRUNHUBER: One person has died after a small plane crashed in Northern New York State near Niagara Falls. Police say the single engine Cessna was being used for skydiving and was heading back to land after releasing all of the sky divers. The pilot was the only one on board at the time of the crash. The NTSB has opened an investigation.

Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Beryl knocked out power to tens of thousands of homes, some people in Texas are finally getting the lights back on. CenterPoint Energy says it has restored electricity to pretty much all of those who are able to receive power. The company says the remaining 2,100 customers who are still without power have damaged homes or equipment issues. Hurricane Beryl slammed into the Texas Gulf Coast in the Houston area earlier this month as a Category 1 storm killing at least ten people. CenterPoint Energy says it will continue to work until the power for every impacted customer is fully restored.

Excessive heat continues to scorch the U.S. from coast to coast as millions remain under heat alerts and face potentially record-breaking temperatures. CNN meteorologist Elisa Raffa has the details.

ELISA RAFFA, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Drought conditions have been plaguing much of the East Coast from the mid-Atlantic, places like D.C. and Virginia, down through the Southeast, through the Carolinas, and even into North Georgia, Atlanta, seeing some of these moderate, even in some places, severe impacts from drought, when we've had a stationary front literally just parked across the southeast a lot of this week that's continuing with the rounds of showers and storms. And you can see the storms continue to ignite on Sunday as this front kind of stays put. We'll have those storms ignite again, especially with the daytime heat and humidity later on in the day.

Most of these storms look like they drop somewhere on one to two inches of rain. If you get a real juicy storm, you could see some three or four-inch totals that could cause some minor flash flooding if you're over an area that's already kind of saturated from the week.

Things are, again, kind of parked and stalled across the southeast and it's because they're also kind of parked installed across the west with this dome of heat and humidity that just continues to sit and bring above average temperatures from the Pacific Northwest down the California coast. But, again, with that heat kind of shoved that way, that's what's giving you that stalled front, the clouds, the storms, and some cooler than normal temperatures across the southeast.

Triple-digit temperatures continue for a place like Palm Springs, as we start out the work week, near 112 on Tuesday, Vegas continues a stretch above 110 degrees, so does Phoenix. We're even looking at temperatures from 105 to 110 degrees for places like Spokane and Boise. These places don't typically see heat. This is hot. It doesn't get that extreme this far north. These temperatures are much more typical and much more average for a place like Phoenix, a desert city.

So, something to watch very closely, especially considering where you're seeing a lot of this major and extreme heat risk. It's that risk for heat sickness. This is an area again doesn't have too much access to air conditioning. This is the Pacific Northwest. It doesn't usually get this hot even in summer, so something to watch pretty closely.

You see the moderate and major risk for heat sickness does continue to stay out west through Monday and Tuesday, as that heat also just stays kind of parked.

BRUNHUBER: Soaring temperatures are being seen all over Greece, and parts of the nation have seen little to no rain in months. The situation is putting a heavy burden on the water network.

Eleni Giokos looks at what one island is doing to ease the problem and how the growing water crisis could change the future in Greece.

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ELENI GIOKOS, CNN ANCHOR (voice over): Known for its beaches that attract tourists and its fertile land for farmers, Greece's Naxos Island is a popular destination in the Aegean Sea. After no rainfall over the past few months and an extreme heat wave in the region, the island's biggest reservoir dried up and seawater seeped into irrigation wells, leaving the island with a water crisis.

STELIOS ZACHARATOS, CATTLE FARMER: My entire job has to do with water. It concerns me 100 percent if it does not rain. I cannot do anything if I cannot feed my cows. It is the basis for everything. Everything begins with water.

GIOKOS: Currently, the two reservoirs on the island contained 220,000 cubic meters of reusable water, only one third of what was available last year. In order to get water to homes and hotels on the island, authorities leased portable desalination units. These units treat seawater to make it safe to drink.

VANGELIS KATSARAS, HOTEL OWNER: We are lucky that we are on an island, and we have the sea, and can, well, have to turn the sea into water.

GIOKOS: But farmers on the island are not as fortunate, and won't receive any of the fresh water.

ZACHARATOS: If this continues, we will abandon the trade. It happened this year. What if it happens again next year? What will we do?

GIOKOS: As tourism season nears its peak, the island is preparing for a record number of visitors this year. But climate change has other plans, threatening the future of Greece's tourism economy by bringing erratic rainfall, high temperatures and wildfires to the region. Climate experts say the worst is yet to come.

STELIOS VATHRAKOKOILIS, POTATO FARMER: Big disappointment. We humans did not succeed in foreseeing that climate change was going to knock on our doors as well as the rest of the world. And if this continues, may the Virgin Mary help us. That is all I can say.

GIOKOS: Eleni Giokos, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BRUNHUBER: Well, it was a sweltering Saturday on Spain's east coast. The National Weather Agency issued a red heat alert, the country's highest for the region of Valencia. Temperatures climbed beyond a stifling 40 degrees Celsius, that's 104 degrees Fahrenheit.

People flocked to the beaches hoping to catch a break from the oppressive temperatures. Last year, Spain had almost 11,000 deaths attributed to extreme heat.

Well, 55 years ago, U.S. astronauts made history taking their first steps on the moon. We'll have a look back at Apollo 11 next on CNN. Please stay with us.

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[03:55:00]

BRUNHUBER: The WNBA all-star team shine Saturday with a victory over the Olympic team USA and dominating the game is this woman you see right there. The game's MVP, Arike Ogunbowale, who went on to score all three goals, an all-star game record of 34 points. And crowd favorite Caitlin Clark also set an all star game rookie record with ten assists. This is the second time non-Olympian WNBA players have beaten Team USA.

55 years ago Saturday, the United States made history as Apollo 11 touched down on the moon.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.

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BRUNHUBER: More than half a billion people watched back in 1969 as astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first human beings to set foot on the moon. The 55th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission corresponds with another special lunar event this month called the Buck Moon. Stargazers will get a chance to see the full moon shine bright in the sky this weekend, reaching its peak this morning.

All right, that wraps this hour of CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Kim Brunhuber. Fred Pleitgen picks up our coverage at the more NEWSROOM right after the break.

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