Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump Vents Anger Toward Putin; Questions Raised Over Texas Flood Warnings; Trump, Netanyahu Meet Again to Discuss Possible Israel-Hamas Ceasefire; Fire in Southern France Threatens Marseille; Macron Meets with King Charles, Says U.K., France Must 'Save Europe.' Aired 12-12:45a ET

Aired July 09, 2025 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:35]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: A moment of clarity for the U.S. president. Putin is the problem. Ahead on CNN NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We get a lot of (EXPLETIVE DELETED) thrown at us by Putin. He's killing a lot of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: A one-sided bromance may be ending with Donald Trump apparently realizing he's been played by a Russian president not interested in a ceasefire in Ukraine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R), TEXAS: Who's to blame? Know this, that's the word choice of losers.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: The governor of Texas says he won't play the blame game on why so many died in weekend floods, what's also known as ducking responsibility and refusing to be held accountable.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Authorities are urging residents to stay indoors away from the toxic wildfire smoke.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And how to reduce the summer threat of wildfires across Europe. Prevent them from happening in the first place.

ANNOUNCER: Live from Atlanta, this is CNN NEWSROOM with John Vause.

VAUSE: The moment may finally have arrived. A moment of clarity for Donald Trump and his years long bromance with Russian President Vladimir Putin. In public statements, at least, President Trump now seems to realize he's been strung along by Putin, who has never had any real interest in negotiating a ceasefire with Ukraine. Trump might now be seeing Putin, as most others do, a cold blooded killer of innocent men, women and children.

President Trump's frustration with his Russian counterpart has been building for weeks. And after another deadly Russian airstrike on Ukraine Friday, Trump reversed a pause on weapons shipments, especially air defense -- munitions, rather, including some but not all Patriot interceptors promised to Kyiv by the previous administration.

When he campaigned for the White House, Donald Trump repeatedly promised he could end the war in Ukraine on day one of his second term. 167 days since then, and now he admits ending this conflict is a lot harder than he expected. And despite all of that, the U.S. president has stopped short of imposing punitive measures like secondary sanctions on Moscow.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're dealing with him now, too. That's -- we're not happy with Putin. I'm not happy with Putin. I can tell you that much right now, because he's killing a lot of people, and a lot of them are his soldiers, his soldiers and their soldiers mostly. And it's now up to 7,000 a week. And I'm not happy with Putin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: More now from CNN's Kevin Liptak reporting in from Washington.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Trump's comments about his Russian counterpart at that Cabinet meeting on Tuesday were really so striking for a president who has spent really most of the last 10 years or so offering much more conciliatory tone towards his counterpart in Russia. And I think it does show the frustration that has developing on the part of President Trump over the last several days that Putin has so far resisted his overtures to try and end the war in Russia.

And you really have seen it bubbling up since his phone call that he held with Putin last Thursday. He said that was disappointing that he had essentially made no progress with Putin to try and bring the fighting in Ukraine to an end. And so you really do see the president taking this markedly new harsh tone towards his counterpart. But the real question now, of course, is how he plans to channel that anger.

Does, for example, the president decide to put in new sanctions on Russia? He was asked today whether he would support that bipartisan bill in the Senate that would apply new sanctions towards Moscow. The president stopped short of saying that he endorsed that bill. But he did say that he left open the option. The other thing that the president does, it seemed, more willing to do

is to send new defensive weapons to Ukraine. And this is something that the president has been sort of thinking about for the last week or so. Remember, last week, the administration said it would put a pause on those weapons as it conducted essentially an inventory of U.S. stockpiles.

But the president saying today he didn't actually know who ordered that pause in place and saying that he would approve of these new weapons to Ukraine, which will be essential. You know, as Russia ramps up its drone and missile strikes on Ukraine, some of those missiles can only be intercepted by the U.S. made Patriot missile system.

[00:05:01]

And so President Trump clearly indicating that he does want to help Ukraine defend itself against this Russian onslaught, which I do think is notable. And it was something that the president said today that was, I think, so noteworthy in this Cabinet meeting, essentially saying no matter how you feel about how much the U.S. has supported Ukraine, or whether you think the U.S. has spent too much there, which at the end of the day, is President Trump's position. He has said that on the campaign trail.

But he said, no matter how you feel about that, you can't deny that the Ukrainians have been brave in this fight, staving off a full Russian aggression. And I do think that that does indicate that the president is evolving in his viewpoint on this war. And, you know, he also spoke last week to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy said afterwards that that was their best conversation to date.

The president today saying that he would order U.S. contractors to speed up their production of some of these defensive weapons. Clearly, President Trump now of the belief that it's essential to help Ukraine defend itself going forward as it becomes clear that Putin is no more interested in trying to strike a ceasefire than he was when President Trump took office.

Kevin Liptak, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Charles Kupchan is a professor of international affairs at Georgetown University. He's a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and served on the National Security Council in the Clinton White House. And he's joining us this hour from New Jersey.

Thank you for coming back.

CHARLES KUPCHAN, SENIOR FELLOW, COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS: Good to be with you.

VAUSE: OK, so for a decade now, when Donald Trump has spoken about Russian President Vladimir Putin, it's almost always been complimentary and positive. Like this. Here he is. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So now I like Putin. Now Putin called me a genius, by the way. They asked me, is Putin smart? Yes, Putin was smart. I mean, Putin and I got along well. He's a very smart guy. I've always had a good relationship with Putin.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: But at a Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, a markedly different tone from the U.S. president about his good friend in Russia. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We get a lot of (EXPLETIVE DELETED) thrown at us by Putin for you want to know the truth. He's very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: OK. So judging Trump, not only by his recent public statements, but also by his recent actions, what's your assessment of where his relationship stands with Putin and what that means for Ukraine?

KUPCHAN: You know, I think frustration is the word that comes to mind. Trump has talked to Putin six times in about six months since Trump came into office, and has tried to end this war and basically he's got nothing to show for it. Putin not only isn't willing to make peace, but he has intensified the bombing campaigns of Ukraine.

I think probably a couple other things are at play. One is, he had a very good NATO summit, and I'm guessing that behind the scenes, everyone said to President Trump, don't throw Ukraine under the bus. And the third thing that may be in play here is Iran, where Trump took the gamble to join Israel and hitting Iran's nuclear facilities. And it really has worked. We now have a whole new diplomatic landscape opening up in the Middle East.

And I think Trump gets it now. He's got to put more pressure on Russia if he's going to get a deal in Ukraine.

VAUSE: And he's also reversed that pause in weapons shipments to Ukraine. A European official told CNN he does not believe the order initially came from Donald Trump, adding that Trump appeared to have soured on Russian President Vladimir Putin weeks earlier. Quote, "To us, his position seemed to have changed already in The Hague." That's the NATO summit that you mentioned.

In fact, it was Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth who gave the authorization for that pause. So from his perspective, did Hegseth simply fail to notice the shifting winds on Ukraine and Russia, because everything this administration does is usually aimed to please just one man?

KUPCHAN: You know, I think what happened here is that you have a group in the Pentagon led by the chief policy guy. His name is Elbridge Colby, who for the last several years has said we need to stop sending weapons to Ukraine. We need to focus on the big challenge of our time. And that's China. And I'm guessing he's the one who said, hey, stockpiles are running too low. We need to suspend these weapons transfers that are pending.

Whether Trump knew about it, unclear, but I think it is clear that when Trump got wind of it and he was frustrated after the call with Putin went nowhere, and then Putin intensifies the bombing campaign, he said, no, I'm going to turn that flow back on. And now we need to wait and see, John, whether when the $61 billion that are still funding these U.S. weapons to Ukraine, when that runs out this summer, is Trump going to ask Congress for more funding? We don't know yet.

[00:10:07]

VAUSE: So that will essentially be the test of where he stands on, you know, Russia and Ukraine, basically.

KUPCHAN: Yes, I mean, I think that is in many respects the litmus test.

VAUSE: Well, Ukraine will receive some of the air defenses that they've been promised by the previous administration, including Patriot interceptors, but not all that were promised, even though the U.S. stockpiles are reportedly running low. Again, here's President Trump on that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We make the best military equipment by far. There's nobody close. You look at other equipment from other countries. It's not even close. That's why everybody wants to buy our equipment. And that's why we're going to step up these contractors now that make it. And they're brilliant, but they make it too slowly. And we have to step them up, Pete, and let them make it at a much higher rate. Unfortunately, we have to do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So is there a time frame here on how long it will take to resupply U.S. weapons stockpiles? And until then, where is the greatest risk to U.S. national security while those stockpiles are low? And how big is that risk?

KUPCHAN: You know, I think it kind of depends on the weapons system that we're talking about. But there's no question that the United States has let its military industrial complex atrophy to the point where it simply can't flip a switch and produce more Patriots or produce more 155 millimeter artillery. And Europe is in the same boat. And so you can't dismiss this issue of low stockpiles, especially after the United States just launched the military campaign in Iran.

Yes, it was a short campaign. Yes, it didn't involve a lot of bombers, but to carry out that kind of attack, you got to put in in the region more aircraft, more air defense, more naval vessels. But I do think that the United States can afford to give Ukraine what it needs alongside the Europeans and to the degree that Trump feels that he's already expended enough money, he can have the Europeans and the Ukrainians buy American weapons, which is part of what we're seeing here. In fact, the Ukrainians, just a couple of days ago, struck a deal with an American company to co-produce and to buy lots and lots of drones.

VAUSE: Donald Trump does like a deal. So maybe that's one of the solutions here as well.

Charles Kupchan, thanks so much for being with us, sir. Good to see you again.

KUPCHAN: Good to be with you, John.

VAUSE: Five days on since floods devastated parts of Texas, questions remain over why many did not receive weather alerts in the hours before the storm. And now CNN has learned Texas officials in 2016 and again in 2017 rejected funding for a flood warning system for Kerr County, one of the hardest hit areas by catastrophic flash flooding.

Governor Greg Abbott says state lawmakers will address the emergency alert system in the coming session, but he and other officials are facing questions about why evacuation orders weren't issued ahead of the floods, as well as an overall breakdown in communication.

Meantime, search and rescue operations are underway in Central Texas, even though the chances of finding any more survivors are fading. At least 111 people have died in the floods. Police say no one in Kerr County has been found alive since Friday.

The very latest now from CNN's Isabel Rosales.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ISABEL ROSALES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That dramatic jump from 18 to over 170 known to be missing in Kerr County alone came as a total shock to first responders and volunteers that I spoke to here on the ground in Center Point, also in Kerr County.

This is what they have been working toward trying to give families here answers as to what happened to their loved ones. In this site that you're looking at right now, they're draining this lake trying to get access, they tell me, to a vehicle that is submerged to make sure there's no one inside. Meanwhile, questions are being raised if Kerr County officials gave residents enough warning.

Officials during a press conference wouldn't commit to a timeline of when they knew the floods posed a deadly threat and avoided repeated questions as to who knew what and when. Texas Governor Greg Abbott, he was asked, too, during a press conference who was to blame, and in his response, he used a football metaphor. Listen.

ABBOTT: I'm going to use your words. Who's to blame? Know this, that's the word choice of losers. Every football team makes mistakes. The losing teams are the ones that try to point out who's to blame. The way winners talk is not to point fingers. They talk about solutions.

ROSALES: And CNN obtained new records showing that two days before the deadly flash floodings, there was actually a state inspector on the ground in Camp Mystic that certified that the camp had an emergency plan in place, and that the cabins and other buildings, they were safe.

Now, Camp Mystic, he confirmed, this state inspector confirmed that it had a state mandated plan for, quote, "emergency shelter and for evacuation in case of an emergency."

[00:15:03]

This plan would have also, the state tells us, had information on what to do in case of flooding. Of course, this report is raising all sorts of new questions about whether the plan in place there at Camp Mystic, whether it was adequate and whether it was actually followed during the emergency.

Isabel Rosales, CNN, Center Point, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: To the west of Texas, flash floods have also swept through parts of New Mexico. Nearly 100 people have been rescued, including dozens at a popular mountain retreat in the southern part of the state. Authorities urge people to seek higher ground as the Ruidoso River rose nearly 19 feet, almost six meters in just minutes.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh my -- oh, my gosh.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Houses were swept away by a powerful muddy current. So far, no word yet on any casualties. The full extent of the destruction won't be clear until the water recedes.

Well, the U.S. president is unveiling plans for even more tariffs. He now says copper imports will be hit with a 50 percent levy, but do not reveal when it would take effect. The threat caused prices of the metal to hit an all-time high. Last year the U.S. imported $17 billion worth of copper, a crucial component in electronics, machinery, appliances as well as vehicles.

Donald Trump also revised his threat to slap 200 percent tariffs on pharmaceuticals, saying an announcement is coming very soon. He's argued the U.S. needs more domestic drug manufacturing, but acknowledged that may take a while.

And the emerging markets that make up the BRICS economic alliance could be hit with a new 10 percent tariff. President Trump says it's needed to protect the U.S. dollar from threats to its dominance.

This all comes a day after the White House pushed back its so-called reciprocal tariffs against these 14 countries to next month.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The big money will start coming in on August 1st. I think it was made clear today by the letters that were sent out yesterday and today. Go ahead please.

SCOTT BESSENT, TREASURY SECRETARY: Yes, sir. We will take it in about $100 billion in tariff income thus far this year. And that's with the tariffs, the tariffs not having started until the second quarter. So we could expect that that could be well over $300 billion by the end of the year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: In a moment, momentum appears to be building towards a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas. We'll have details from the latest meeting between the U.S. and Israeli leaders at the White House. More on that when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:21:58]

VAUSE: Well, optimism is growing about a possible ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. Dozens were reportedly killed in Gaza in the most recent Israeli airstrikes. Local emergency responders and hospitals say more than 60 people were killed Tuesday. Many were said to be living in tents, housing displaced people in southern Gaza.

The Israeli military also issued new evacuation orders for much of the city of Khan Younis. Gaza's Health Ministry reports hundreds of people have been killed in Israeli strikes within the last two weeks. And at the White House, the Israeli prime minister again met with the U.S. president, in President Trump's words, almost exclusively to talk about Gaza.

CNN's Kristen Holmes has the very latest now reporting in from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump sitting down for a second meeting with Israeli prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The president saying they were going to have further discussions about a ceasefire in Gaza. Earlier in the day, during a Cabinet meeting, President Trump called on U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff to talk about where this current negotiations stood. And President Trump himself also adding he believed Netanyahu was looking for a deal.

STEVE WITKOFF, U.S. SPECIAL ENVOY TO MIDDLE EAST: We're in proximity talks now. And we had four issues, and now we're down to one after two days of proximity talks. So we are hopeful that by the end of this week, we will have an agreement that will bring us into a 60-day ceasefire. TRUMP: And it's a tragedy. It's a tragedy. And he wants to get it

solved. And I want to get it solved. And I think the other side wants to get it solved. And a lot of hate, you know, it's a long term hate, but we think we're going to have it solved pretty soon, hopefully with a real solution, a solution that's going to be holding up.

HOLMES: Now Witkoff is expected to go to Qatar later in the week to continue these ongoing negotiations on a ceasefire deal. We are also told that a Qatari delegation met with senior White House officials for hours about a ceasefire in Gaza before Netanyahu arrived for his meeting with President Trump.

Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Still to come here on CNN, Europe's fire emergency spreads to southern France, with the wildfire burning dangerously close to the country's second largest city. More on that in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:28:50]

VAUSE: Welcome back. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Let's take a look at today's top stories.

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth did not inform the White House before he authorized a pause in weapons shipments to Ukraine last week. That's according to five sources familiar with the matter. President Trump, however, says those shipments will now continue, including air defense systems.

We're learning Kerr County, Texas, applied twice to state funding for a flood warning system nearly a decade ago, and was rejected both times. Parts of the county in Central Texas were devastated by deadly flash flooding over the weekend. Many residents say they did not receive weather alerts or evacuation orders before the disaster.

The Marseilles Airport in southern France has reopened after a fast moving wildfire forced it to close Tuesday. Officials say the fire is still burning but is under control. High winds are fueling the blaze, with one resident calling the scene apocalyptic. So far, about 20 buildings have been damaged. No deaths have been reported.

And the possibility of a return of strong winds around Marseille remains a major concern for fire crews. For more on fire conditions as well as the forecast, here's CNN's Derek Van Dam.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAN DAM: A wildfire has reached the outskirts of Marseille in the south of France sending a plume of smoke billowing into the sky. Look at this dramatic video of the smoke from the wildfire darkening the skies overhead across Marseille.

[00:30:11]

Authorities are urging residents to stay indoors, away from the toxic wildfire smoke.

This wildfire has actually erupted in size. It's so big that it's visible from satellite. Take a look at this NASA worldview satellite image. We'll zoom in to the South of France. Marseille, located right about here. The hotspot with the wildfire located with that shading of orange.

You can almost see the plume of smoke that's coming from a Northerly direction. And that's really important, because it gives an indication, at least to me, what's going on on the ground there. And I'll explain.

So, look at this on the ground image. You can see the smoke again cascading over the Mediterranean and the town of Marseille. But there really -- a deeper look into the temperatures here. It's -- it's warm, but it's not excruciatingly hot. It's 26 degrees or so in Marseille.

But it is from the previous heat wave at the end of June and into the early parts of July that really set the stage for wildfire activity across the South of France.

Remember Copernicus, the climate monitoring agency from Europe, actually depicted this heat wave quite well, with some temperatures reaching as high as 50 degrees across Spain and Portugal.

Certainly, extreme heat felt across the Southern portions of France near the Mediterranean, right where this wildfire has erupted.

Well, now, since we had that dried out vegetation from the extreme heat from last week's heat wave, we have what is called a mistral wind. This is the local term for the Northerly winds that wrap on the back side of the Alps and out and offshore into the Northern Mediterranean.

What this is, is actually a cool, very dry wind that helps dry out the vegetation near the coastline. You can see it with our wind forecast. It's gusty here, really, from a Northerly direction: anywhere from 30 to 40 kilometers per hour.

So, if you get a spark, with those dry conditions already in place from the previous heat wave, it doesn't take much to fan more flames.

So, here's a look at the forecast going forward. We have warm temperatures in this outlook, and they're just being really exacerbated by the extreme marine heat wave still continuing across the Mediterranean.

Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Syria's new government is facing its first major natural disaster, with wildfires burning through forests, as well as farmland.

Civil defense officials say hundreds have been forced to flee the wildfires, which is being driven by strong, gusty winds, as well as bone-dry countryside from years of drought.

And after Syrian authorities appealed for international assistance, neighboring Turkey sent equipment, and Jordan sent civil defense crews.

According to an early police investigation, Liverpool football star Diego Jota was likely speeding when his car crashed in Spain last week, killing him and his younger brother.

Authorities say Jota was behind the wheel when the car, reportedly a Lamborghini, burst a tire, veered from the road, and burst into flames.

Spanish authorities are expected to finalize the investigation later this week. The findings will be sent to a judge before public release.

We'll take a short break here. You're watching CNN. Back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:37:55]

VAUSE: Bulgaria will have a new currency in about six months from now after approval from the European Union to use the euro.

Bulgaria has been trying to ditch its currency, the lev, for the euro for the past 18 years, ever since joining the E.U. in 2007.

Now, only six of the 27 E.U. countries remain outside the single currency. That's Sweden, Poland, Hungary, Romania, Denmark, and the Czech Republic.

Well, during a state visit to the U.K., French President Macron has talked of a shared responsibility with the United Kingdom to protect Europe from the -- the world's many destabilizing threats.

Macron was the first European leader to make a state visit to Britain since Brexit. CNN's Melissa Bell has details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MELISSA BELL, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A royal welcome for French President Emmanuel Macron, the first state visit by a European leader since Brexit, with no pomp and circumstance spared.

Welcomed first by the Prince and Princess of Wales, then greeted by King Charles and Queen Camilla.

Onto a procession through the streets of Windsor, along with the French first lady, Brigitte Macron.

The pageantry and the tone, a stark contrast from the Brexit fallout that so tested the U.K.'s relations with its European neighbors.

EMMANUEL MACRON, FRENCH PRESIDENT: Amid these upheavals, the alliance between France and the United Kingdom has not faltered. It has even become stronger. Yes, during the past few years, this alliance became stronger.

BELL (voice-over): Speaking to Parliament at the Palace of Westminster's Royal Gallery, the French president vowed that together, they would bring an end to the wars in Ukraine and Gaza.

Over the three-day visit, President Macron and U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer are also expected to address U.S. tariff wars, post- Brexit trade, and migration.

MACRON: We love monarchy, but especially when it's not at home.

BELL (voice-over): Whilst much still divides them, there was also a reminder of their shared past and the suggestion from the French president that it might just be time to lay their differences to rest.

[00:40:07]

Melissa Bell, CNN, Paris.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: One of Apple's very first computers is up for auction. And yes, it's still working.

Sotheby's has the Apple-1 listed as part of its Geek Week history of science and technology sale. This nearly 50-year-old computer is expected to sell for up to $600,000, and Sotheby's says that's a very conservative estimate.

It's one of only 50 original computers built by Apple founder Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak, which originally sold for $666.66.

Thank you for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause, back at the top of the hour with more news. In the meantime, please stay with us. WORLD SPORT is next after a short break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[00:45:32]

(WORLD SPORT)