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Sources: Deputy FBI Chief Could Resign Over Epstein Memo Clash; Trump Announces 30 Percent Tariffs On E.U., Mexico Starting August 1st; Judge Blocks Indiscriminate Immigration Stops In L.A. Area; Interview With Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-CA); State Department Fires 1,300 Plus Staff Members; Both Sides Trade Blame As Talks On Possible Gaza Ceasefire Stall; Medics: Israeli Strike Kills Children Waiting At Gaza Health Center; "The Billionaire Boys Club" Airs Sunday At 10PM ET/PT. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired July 12, 2025 - 18:00   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And his presence is huge. He takes over. He is sort of banging his head on the chandelier or something and then said, this report was, you know in Ethiopia and the famine report is huge and is in our control and it broke my heart and it broke Paula's heart.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JESSICA DEAN, CNN HOST: "Live Aid: When Rock and Roll Took on the World" premieres Sunday night at 9:00 Eastern and Pacific, only here on CNN.

[18:00:27]

DEAN: You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. Hi, everyone. I'm Jessica Dean in New York.

A major clash within the Department of Justice over the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Multiple sources telling CNN this week that the number two top official at the FBI, Deputy Director Dan Bongino, is considering resigning after a tense confrontation with Attorney General Pam Bondi over the handling of the Epstein case. And just moments ago, President Trump, addressing that clash. And you'll see there "Pam Bondi doing a fantastic job."

CNN's Betsy Klein is joining us now.

Betsy, this has been the talk of MAGA world and now the President himself weighing in.

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER AND WRITER: Certainly, Jessica, this has been the source of so much friction for the President's top allies, advisers and loyalists over the past several days after the release of a memo about Jeffrey Epstein. It concluded that Epstein died by suicide and that there was no so-called client list.

Now, that had been a conspiracy theory pushed by many top administration officials, including the Attorney General, Pamela Bondi, at one point. And there is so much frustration that has really reverberated through MAGA world frustration as well, with Bondi's handling of all of this, and that reached a boiling point this Wednesday, our colleagues reported infighting between the department of justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation coming to a head at this explosive meeting where Deputy FBI Director Dan Bongino and FBI Director Kash Patel were confronted about whether they were behind a story that said the FBI wanted more information about the so-called Epstein files, but were stymied by the Department of Justice.

After that meeting, Bongino was telling people he was considering resigning and that he did not -- he ended up not going to work on Friday. Patel, for his part, saying he was going to continue to serve in this administration in a post to social media earlier today.

But President Trump, clearly frustrated by all of this, trying to rein in this infighting as he issued a full throated defense of his Attorney General, Pamela Bondi. He writes, "What's going on with my boys and in some cases, gals, they're all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a fantastic job. We are on one team, MAGA, and I don't like what's happening."

The President also went on to issue a directive to the FBI Director Kash Patel. He said "He must be focused on investigating voter fraud, political corruption, ActBlue, the rigged and stolen election of 2020 and arresting thugs and criminals instead of spending month after month looking at nothing but the same radical left inspired documents on Jeffrey Epstein."

The president went on to say, "Let Pam Bondi do her job. She's great." -- Jessica.

DEAN: Really, really interesting. An interesting development in this whole back and forth.

I also do want to ask you about this escalating trade war. The President saying he is going to put tariffs of 30 percent on Mexico and the European Union. This coming after a week-long of a lot of movement on the tariff front. What are you hearing about that -- Betsy.

KLEIN: That's right. We got here because the President issued those sweeping global tariffs back in April and then he issued a 90-day pause to let his team work out bespoke trade deals. Those have so far proven quite elusive, with two exceptions, really largely failing to materialize. But that pause ended earlier this week and the President extended the deadline to August 1st to allow his team a little more time to negotiate those deals, as he sent out a series of letters to world leaders setting new tariff rates.

And this morning, we heard him targeting Mexico, as well as the European Union, which are really two of the United States' most important, biggest trading partners. And to give you a sense of the scope of that trade, U.S.-Mexico trade totaled $840 billion last year. U.S.-E.U. trade was closer to $1 trillion. But the President earlier today setting a tariff rate of 30 percent on both countries starting on August 1st. He said in a letter to the Mexican President, Claudia Sheinbaum, that he believed, in his view, Mexico wasn't doing enough to secure the border but a Mexican official following that letter said that that 30 percent tariff marked unfair treatment on the European Union side. Commissioner Ursula Von Der Leyen said that they are ready to continue working toward an agreement by that deadline.

But we also heard from one of the President's top negotiators, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who said that the United Kingdom deal should be a lesson to other countries, "Earnest good faith negotiations can produce powerful results." -- Jessica.

[18:05:15]

DEAN: All right, Betsy Klein, with the very latest. We really appreciate that.

Also, breaking, Homeland Security must stop roving patrols that indiscriminately sweep up people without probable cause. This is according to a new ruling from a federal judge. That judge limiting this ruling to their jurisdiction in the Los Angeles area. That's also where, though the Trump administration has focused much of its immigration enforcement in recent weeks. The judge separately ordering that people who are detained must have access to legal counsel.

This week in the Los Angeles area, immigration operations sparked intense standoffs between protesters and law enforcement.

CNN' Julia Benbrook is joining us now, and we have seen this really in the last several weeks, these ICE raids that continue in Southern California, Julia, now, this ruling specifically tailored to that judge's jurisdiction. What more are you learning about that? And also what the Trump administration is saying about it?

JULIA BENBROOK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jessica, we heard directly from the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, just a little while ago and she continues to tout the Trump administration's large scale immigration operations.

In fact, she said that as they continue, that new funding will even allow them to go harder and faster with its immigration crackdown. She also repeated something that we hear often from members of this administration. She said that she believes that the President has a mandate to take action.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KRISTI NOEM, U.S. HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY: Now that the presidents reconciliation bill, The Big, Beautiful Bill has passed, we also have more resources. We are going to come harder and faster, and were going to take these criminals down with even more strength than we ever have before.

We have the funding to put in the training, the resources, the salary and the support for our law enforcement officers that they've never had before. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BENBROOK: And of course, that press conference comes after weeks of chaotic immigration raids in public and at workplaces across Southern California, which, as you pointed out, is a flashpoint area when it comes to this issue.

It also comes the day after that federal judge granted a temporary restraining order in a lawsuit requiring federal authorities to provide reasonable suspicion before making an immigration arrest. That judge found that DHS had made stops and arrests without probable cause, and she is calling on the Department to stop any sort of arrests that are solely based on race, on occupation, or on spoken language.

We did also receive a statement from a White House spokesperson responding directly to that judge's order. I want to pull up part of that for you now. In it they said: "No federal judge has the authority to dictate immigration policy. That authority rests with Congress and the President. Enforcement operations require careful planning and execution, skills far beyond the purview or jurisdiction of any judge. We expect this gross overstep of judicial authority to be corrected on appeal." So they're making it clear that they do expect to take more legal action on this -- Jessica.

DEAN: All right, Julia, thank you so much for that.

Our next guest represents areas included in that judges order, California Democratic Congressman Salud Carbajal.

Congressman, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

In response to this, yes, to this ruling, and also we just heard from the Secretary of Homeland Security, Kristi Noem, the Trump administration continues to make the case that they believe they have a mandate to be doing this, that they believe this is what the American people voted for when they voted for President Trump last fall.

What do you say to that?

REP. SALUD CARBAJAL (D-CA): I would say the. American people did not provide a mandate for this administration to implement Nazi Germany tactics on our domestic American soil. Initially, they said they were going after criminals. Nobody defends that. But now they're going after hardworking individuals that are harvesting our farms, working in construction, working in the hospitality industry. And they're also indiscriminately showing up in military mass force to parks without any reasonable reason to do (AUDIO GAP) used in Russia.

I don't believe that's the mandate that the American people gave this administration when it elected Mr. Trump.

DEAN: I do want to ask, you apparently were -- you went to where one of these Santa Barbara County ICE operations that took place this week. And so you watched this with your own eyes. What did you see?

[18:10:06]

CARBAJAL: Well, I wasn't able to see much because when I showed up, there was a perimeter of ICE agents dressed in military uniforms. They were not letting members of the public alone to come in. I identified myself as a member of Congress, and that I was there to observe and provide oversight which is my responsibility and I was denied access and the ability to go in and witness what was going on.

DEAN: You have cited the Trump administration's lack of transparency, as you're talking about here, when carrying out these arrests. I am curious, what questions do you still have for the administration? What questions do you think they need to be answering?

CARBAJAL: Well, it is important to understand a number of things. One is, where are these individuals taken that are apprehended? Even American citizens have been apprehended. Nobody knows their whereabouts.

The administration is not sharing any information and responding to our inquiries.

A child was hurt. Here is a projectile, a part of the shrapnel that came from a flash grenade projectile that was thrown out to the protesters that were peacefully assembling. They're doing things that they're not answering to. They're not providing information. There are many questions that are coming forward about the humanitarian support and food that needs to be provided to anybody who is apprehended. No information is coming out again, like Nazi Germany, no information, no transparency.

Things are being done in the middle of the night as well. It is just a very incendiary environment, hostile environment that is being provided by these militarized agents that are coming to our communities and really creating a very, very volatile environment that could breed violence amongst themselves and the protesters, something we don't want.

DEAN: And I am sorry, are you comparing -- you're comparing these agents to Nazis?

CARBAJAL: The tactics that they're employing are very similar to what we know was employed during that Germany Nazi era. No transparency, showing up, militarized, apprehending people, even violating the Civil Rights of American citizens.

DEAN: I also do want to ask you, there is a lot of farm country there in your district, also, I believe, or at least in the Santa Barbara area. There has been talk that maybe there could be -- that that industry in particular is quite harmed by these immigration efforts, that there are farmers and farm owners who are quite concerned about being able to continue with their business.

Have you heard or has there been any talk around trying to sort out that particular piece of this? CARBAJAL: Well, I certainly have raised that to the administration. I have raised it to the Secretary of Agriculture in hearings. Many farmers have contacted our office. One of the farm bureaus in my district issued a statement last time there was a raid on one of the farms expressing their grave concern and dissatisfaction with the actions that the administration was taking.

As a result, many of our farms and fields are going unharvested, and it is creating a lot of chaos and it is hurting our economy.

DEAN: And did you get any indication that any action could potentially be taken?

CARBAJAL: We are getting nothing from this administration. We are completely in the dark. We submit inquiries, questions, and we get nothing on the other line. We get no information back.

DEAN: All right, Congressman Carbajal, thank you for your time. We appreciate it.

CARBAJAL: You're welcome. Thank you. And you know, I think this is yet -- this trauma that this administration is inflicting on our communities, it is another way to mask and hide the fact that he just signed this big, ugly betrayal bill, that's going to take health care and food assistance from over 17 million Americans.

I think its a distraction as well. Let's not forget the damage that they're doing to the American people with the bill they just signed to take health care away from many Americans.

DEAN: All right, Congressman, thank you.

And still to come, new reporting about Camp Mystic in Texas, where many children lost their lives in last week's flooding. How many of its buildings were taken out of some FEMA maps of extreme flood zones? You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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[18:19:23]

DEAN: The acting head of FEMA made its first visit to Kerrville, Texas today after the devastating floods that left at least 129 people dead and more than 150 who are still missing. This comes as Central Texas right now is facing new threats of flash flooding from storms this weekend, and also as search crews continue to look for all of those missing people.

There is also new reporting from "The New York Times" that says documents show FEMA did not answer thousands of calls from flood survivors. The agency struggled to answer calls in a timely manner because it had fired hundreds of contractors at the call centers. That's according to this reporting.

"The Times" also reporting FEMA faced similar challenges after Hurricanes Helene and Milton hit the south last year. [18:20:08]

Let's bring in CNN's Julia Vargas Jones, who joins us now from Kerrville, Texas. And, Julia, a lot of questions about this FEMA response that happened after the flooding.

JULIA VARGAS JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There are a lot of questions, Jessica, and this is part of what we posed to the acting director -- administrator, I should say, FEMA, when he was here. We did not get a response, but the details from this "New York Times" reporting are so interesting because they detail the ending of those contracts on the fifth, and you see the number of calls answered, just dropping on the next day and dropping all the way to 15 percent on the third day.

That, of course, as CNN has reported on this new rule from FEMA, where DHS Secretary Kristi Noem has to personally approve expenses that go above $100,000.00 and that this kind of red tape slowed down the response of those search and rescue teams that weren't deployed for more than 72 hours.

Now, speaking earlier today, Secretary Noem did say that this will be the new normal for this administration in the response to disaster going forward. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NOEM: Some of what you saw for our response in Texas is going to be a lot of how President Trump envisions what FEMA would look like into the future. We did things in Texas for response, very different than Joe Biden. That's what President Trump wants.

He wants the states to be empowered. Listen, emergencies -- and we're in the middle of hurricane season, too, so it is important for Florida to know this, too, emergencies are locally executed. They are state managed. The state then manages -- the federal government comes in and supports.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VARGAS: And Jessica, it is worth noting that Texas Governor Greg Abbott praised FEMA's response and said that this was swift and effective as he praised both that and President Trump in his visit here on Friday.

DEAN: And Julia, we are also learning FEMA removed dozens of Camp Mystic buildings from a 100-year flood map before the expansion there. What more have you found out about that?

VARGAS: Well, it is actually rather puzzling, Jessica, I have to say, because this goes back to 2011, when FEMA had basically designated this whole area where Camp Mystic was as a Special Flood Hazard Area, and I think we have the map that we can show there.

Basically, this was an area that would be required to have flood insurance and it would be subject to tighter regulations for any buildings that would be built in the future, 2011, two years later, they grant an appeal that allows for all of Camp Mystic to be exempted from these regulations, including 15 of the buildings.

Now, if you look at that Red Zone there, and then there is the white surrounding part. There are parts of Camp Mystic that were in what is called a Regulatory Floodway, in parts that were in the one percent annual chance of flood hazard.

Now, we know that this is a camp that is 99 years old, 15 of those buildings, those individual buildings from the camp were in there, and then again in 2019, they get another exemption for another 15 buildings as this camp is expanding.

Now, those are a little bit closer to a lake area that was not as damaged. But it just goes to show that there was an awareness dating back to 2011, of the level of danger of this. And it is worth adding, Jessica, that local officials here in Kerr County had also submitted to FEMA a report back in October where they warned of the potential of a disaster of this magnitude happening this year.

DEAN: All right, Julia Vargas Jones, thank you so much for that reporting.

And we are joined now by Syracuse University Associate Professor, Sarah Pralle.

Thank you so much for being here with us. I know you spent a lot of time studying FEMA's flood map determinations. What do you know about this particular case that Julia was just laying out there at Camp Mystic?

SARAH PRALLE, SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR: Well, as Julia said, they applied to -- and I would like to point out that it is the camp that applied for these appeals to FEMA. So FEMA granted them, but it was initiated by the camp itself in two separate years. And so, it is disturbing because at least in some years, it appears that the camp was spending time and resources challenging the maps. I personally think that that time and money would have been spent much better in trying to adapt to the future flood risk, current flood risk, in fact, and in a more forward looking way, in a proactive way, that would be more protective.

DEAN: And so walk us through these flood map designations. We are kind of looking at a version of that right now, but you say that this leaves really no margin for error. How should people be reading these maps?

PRALLE: Well, the maps have these lines on them. Those become the most important lines for regulatory purposes and insurance purposes, because they designate the areas that FEMA considers to be at a one percent risk of flooding or higher on an annual basis, and those lines determine who has to buy insurance and who doesn't have to buy insurance, and they determine the regulations on building within the flood zone or outside of that.

[18:25:27]

So within the flood zone, building is somewhat limited and there is more strict building codes, so typically construction is more expensive within those lines. And so what happens is, in this case, they tried to get some of those structures to be drawn outside of those lines. But the truth is lines don't -- you know, floods don't adhere to lines on the maps, right?

So if you're right outside the flood zone, you're often at as much risk as those that are inside the flood zone.

DEAN: And I know you also published a study in 2021 where you did analyze 20,000 buildings that had been removed from FEMA flood maps. What did you find in that study?

PRALLE: Yes. So this was the research I did with Devin Lee (ph), a colleague, and we looked at the appeal process. So what this is, is that after communities have redrawn their new flood maps, there is a period in which they can appeal those maps if they think that they are inaccurate.

In addition, individuals or businesses can appeal as well to FEMA and so what we found was we were curious about in these appeals, do flood maps expand? Do structures get drawn into the flood zone because they recognize there is greater risk than they thought? Or do structures get taken out of the flood zone typically through this appeals process? And we found that its much, much more likely that buildings get taken out of flood zones during these appeals process and that really flies in the face of evidence to show that the maps themselves already underestimate flood risk.

So it is strange that across the country, these structures are being removed and we think that it has to do with some other factors not having to do with actual flood risk.

DEAN: All right, Sarah Pralle, thank you so much. We really appreciate it.

PRALLE: Thank you.

DEAN: And President Trump is shaking up the country's diplomatic corps by firing hundreds of people at the State Department. We are going to talk about that with a former high level official at the State Department about the potential impact, both here and abroad when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:32:07]

DEAN: More than 1,300 employees fired, most of them civil servants, at the State Department, the latest agency to undergo incredible transformation under President Trump. CNN State Department Reporter Jennifer Hansler has more on the mass firings.

JENNIFER HANSLER, CNN STATE DEPARTMENT REPORTER: The State Department began its mass firings on Friday as part of a broader overhaul of the U.S. diplomatic agency. More than 1,300 people will be fired from the Washington, D.C. offices. This includes 1,107 members of the civil service and 246 foreign service officers. Nearly 3,000 people in total will be leaving the D.C. workforce, including those who were fired, as well as those who took early retirement or buyout options.

The State Department has said that the reorganization is necessary to reduce what they call blow and inefficiencies here at the State Department. They affect some 300 offices here domestically, including those focused on human rights and refugees. However, opponents of the cuts and the changes say they come at a time when the role of diplomacy is more important than ever, with crises raging around the world that the Trump administration says it wants to solve.

The American Foreign Service Association, which is the union that represents foreign service officers, put out a statement Friday saying, quote, "At a moment of great global instability - with war raging in Ukraine, conflict between Israel and Iran, and authoritarian regimes testing the boundaries of international order - the United States has chosen to gut its frontline diplomatic workforce. We oppose this decision in the strongest terms.

The firings had been looming over the State Department for many weeks as they waited for the Supreme Court to rule whether there was a green light for these firings and reorganization to move forward. On Friday, scenes played out of people crying in the halls and greeting their loved ones as they exited the building for what might be the last time in their career.

One foreign service officer who was laid off on Friday, Olga Bashbush, said she was still willing to serve and she was overcome with emotions leaving the State Department. Take a listen to what she told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OLGA BASHBUSH, FORMER STATE DEPARTMENT EMPLOYEE: I feel overwhelmed. I think that's the first emotion. But the second one is I feel a great sense of pride. These firings were not done with dignity and respect, but I have walked out of the State Department with my head held high alongside my civil service and foreign service colleagues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HANSLER: Now, State Department officials say they made these cuts without looking at personnel and rather looked at the functions of the offices they were serving. And if an office was being eliminated, the person would lose their job likely as well. Jessica?

DEAN: All right. Jennifer Hansler, thank you.

And joining us now, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under President Obama, Joel Rubin. He also worked at the State Department during the Clinton and Bush administration and writes "The Briefing Book" on Substack.

[18:35:03]

Joel, thanks for being here with us to kind of give us some context around what actually happened here. First, help people understand how what happened yesterday will change the State Department.

JOEL RUBIN, FMR. DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF STATE: Yes, Jessica, yesterday was a dark day for American diplomacy and global leadership. What we witnessed was a bloodletting of the civil service and of the foreign service, of the people who protect us and make our country safe, make our country strong, take care of our American citizens overseas, the businesses who operate around the world, and really with no clear vision as to why and no communication as to why either.

Apparently, Secretary Rubio yesterday didn't even send out a notification to staff about what the vision was for the department. So, it's really now set the State Department, our top federal agency, I said it with pride, the agency that really does lead the U.S. government around the world, it's set it adrift. And right now, in the moment of crisis, as you were discussing earlier, that's the last thing we should be doing.

DEAN: And the Secretary has said this is about streamlining the department. I want to play a clip of how he explains his thinking around this. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARCO RUBIO, SECRETARY OF STATE: We went very specifically through and reorganized the State Department. And when you reorganize the State Department, there were certain bureaus who wanted to empower the regional bureaus. And there were certain bureaus, these functional bureaus that were closed. Our intent is to move forward the plans that we've notified Congress of weeks ago and that we took months to design.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DEAN: What do you think of the Secretary of State's reasoning and thinking there?

RUBIN: I mean, it's laughable. Look, streamlining means that you make an organization more efficient and effective. I don't know how you make it more effective by cutting 15 percent of the staff. Let's just give an example.

Yesterday, the office that handles multilateral affairs for the Asia Bureau was eliminated while Secretary Rubio is in Asia speaking to multiple allies. That office handles international organizations in Asia. It's now gone. How's that going to make us more effective in our diplomacy with Asia? Bottom line is it's not. It means that China is going to get an advantage. We're going to have nobody covering that spot. I do not see how this makes us more effective in promoting American diplomacy and our interests abroad.

DEAN: And I also - a couple of things - one, civil servants are civil servants. They are not political appointees.

RUBIN: That's right. DEAN: They don't serve - they don't change versus a Republican or a Democrat in - who's ever in the White House. They're there to serve the Americans, right, in their job.

RUBIN: Yes.

DEAN: And so, a number of them were let go in all of this. What does that do to institutional knowledge?

RUBIN: Yes, you know, Jessica, I'm really glad you asked this. Look, you know, the people who serve in our government, the civil servants, they are patriotic Americans. They take an oath to the Constitution. When I served, I served in Clinton. When I started my career, I served in Bush. Then I left and I went - came back in as an Obama administration appointee.

When you're in the agency as a civil servant, you respond to the American people. And so, this sort of description of the American civil service is somehow not being loyal to the administration is completely insane. Quite frankly, it's opposite of anything that I experienced. Civil servants protect America.

And right now, the agency is adrift. And I think that this is going to depress recruitment. It's impossible to recover the lost knowledge. The people who were fired are deep subject matter experts in energy and climate, human rights, democracy, promotion. They're now gone. You don't get that back overnight. And those are interests for the American people overall that we need. And they have bipartisan backing for decades, and now it's just gone. And that means for the future of the State Department, it will likely get worse before it gets better.

DEAN: And look, the Trump administration has made the argument that the government is bloated, that there are too many people working in the government. It can be streamlined. That's what they're trying to do here, that they're trying to make this more efficient. What do you say to that argument?

RUBIN: Yes, look, I don't think anybody - including myself - having served in the government will tell you that there is not an area where waste can be found and can be cut, without a doubt. But first and foremost, when you look at the State Department, essentially what they're getting rid of are people. This is cutting right into the bone marrow of this agency.

And if you want to do a process that really does get more efficient, you should do a comprehensive review with the staff. This was done from the top down. It needs to go through Congress and have hearings and oversight. None of that happened. It was just notified to Congress. And by fiat, it's sort of like the DOGE example. They're just going to make these cuts.

And so, this is not really a streamlined, forward-thinking approach. This is a cut, cut, cut, and we'll see what happens approach.

DEAN: All right, Joel Rubin, thank you for your time. We appreciate it. RUBIN: Thanks, Jessica.

DEAN: Still to come, as Israel and Hamas go through their talks and efforts to get a ceasefire, desperate Palestinians are struggling to access badly needed aid that is trickling in.

[18:40:06]

More on this when we come back.

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[18:44:32]

DEAN: Talks over a possible ceasefire in Gaza appear to have stalled and while those indirect talks were happening between Israel and Hamas, strikes in Gaza were ongoing. Today, at least 27 people were killed near an aid site run by the U.S.-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Now, that's according to the Palestinian ministry of health. CNN cannot independently verify those numbers.

The United Nations says nearly 800 Palestinians have been killed in the last six weeks as they've tried to access aid.

[18:45:02]

We are joined now by UNICEF Emergency Communications Specialist Joe English.

Joe, thank you for being here with us to talk about this right now.

We are hearing of people, including children, being killed while trying to access basic needs. How significant of a risk is it for them to get aid or, as in a story we aired an hour or so ago, line up at a health clinic?

JOE ENGLISH, UNICEF EMERGENCY COMMUNICATION SPECIALIST: Yes, good to be with you, Jessica.

What an impossible choice for parents and families in Gaza. Another week that began with a faint hope of a ceasefire, of finally some kind of end to this absolute carnage, has been another week of heartbreak. Just two days ago, we saw children who were lining up for malnutrition services, children who have been weakened by weeks and weeks of a lack of aid, trying to get any kind of support, and at the end of the day they died.

Now, my colleagues were there. They were on the ground in the aftermath, and they spoke to survivors. And they spoke to one woman who told us that her child, Mohamed (ph), one year old, that very morning had said his first word. He had said, Mama. Then a few hours later he was dead.

And the failure of the international community to protect children, to protect parents, to protect families has gone on for far, far too long. You know, for any parent, it is the ultimate fear that you cannot keep your child safe, and that is the reality for parents all across the Gaza Strip. There has to be an end to the fighting.

DEAN: And I believe when we talked last time, you were talking about, and I think this is an important thing to think about, which is oftentimes when there is aid distributed, the aid goes to the children, goes to the families, so they don't have to travel to get that aid. In this case, they are having to go to these different sites, and that makes it even more difficult.

ENGLISH: Yes, you know, this is the kind of work that we do all around the world. I was speaking to colleagues in DR Congo, you know, another place where it's incredibly hard to reach children and to reach families. (INAUDIBLE) the U.N. is not able - isn't allowed to do that, but we have four distribution sites that you can come to, and they're all heavily militarized.

You know, and so families that - you know, I speak to colleagues, and they tell me that families are sitting around at night making that decision on whether it's safe enough to go out in search of the food that they need for the next day. You know, this is no way to live. We have to be allowed to do our job as we do it all around the world.

DEAN: And just lastly, and I think you've painted quite a picture, but again, just the idea of what it's like for a one-year-old or a six- year-old or an eight-year-old in Gaza right now. They just - they don't have the food they need.

ENGLISH: It's impossible, you know? And just today, we had a warning from UNICEF and several of our humanitarian partners, U.N. partners, that there is a critical, critical lack of fuel. And, you know, people may hear this on the news, and they may think, oh, well, that's fuel for vehicles. But the Gaza Strip, everything relies on fuel, because there is no central electricity. There's very little electricity. And so, hospitals run on fuel, ambulances run on fuel, safe drinking water runs on fuel.

Now, a little bit has been let in over the last couple of days, but it's nowhere near enough. Gaza is being strangled by this lack of humanitarian (INAUDIBLE) ...

DEAN: All right. Joe, we lost you there right at the end, but I want to say thank you so much for joining us. We really do appreciate it. We're going to have more news for you when we come back.

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[18:52:54]

DEAN: A CNN original series goes inside the shocking story of a 1980's social and investment club. And despite its alluring facade, the group was filled with greed, fraud, even murder. CNN's Elizabeth Wagmeister takes us inside the notorious Billionaire Boys Club.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MICHAEL DOUGLAS, ACTOR: Greed is good.

ELIZABETH WAGMEISTER, CNN ENTERTAINMENT CORRESPONDENT (voice over): What Michael Douglas did for greed on "Wall Street" ...

JUDD NELSON, ACTOR, BILLIONAIRE BOYS CLUB: Lamborghinis, Ferraris ...

WAGMEISTER (voice over): Judd Nelson did for greed in Los Angeles in the 1980s.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NELSON: A lot of excess, a lot of exuberance.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGMEISTER (voice over): At the height of his Brat Pack fame, Nelson played Joe Hunt in the hit TV miniseries, Billionaire Boys Club, based on the true story of an L.A. kid who scammed his way to a lavish life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NELSON: He definitely wants to succeed, and he wants it to be shiny. He wants all the glitz and glamour of someone who makes a million dollars a year.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGMEISTER (voice over): It was an era of '80s excess, cocaine, cars and the rise of the yuppie in search of it all.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NICOLE LAPIN, HOST, SCAMS, MONEY, AND MURDER PODCAST: I think L.A. in the '80s was all about image and the illusion of power. So, what Joe Hunt did is he capitalized on that access. He was not only running a scam, he was selling a dream.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGMEISTER (voice over): It all descended into another staple of a wild Hollywood story, murder, as chronicled in the new CNN docuseries, "Billionaire Boys Club."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAPIN: It was "American Psycho" meets "Wall Street" or Gordon Gekko, and the media just went after it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGMEISTER (voice over): Before the Menendez brothers, before O.J., "The Billionaire Boys Club" helped start the era of the celebrity trial.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LAPIN: It played out in the backdrop of Hollywood, covered by Hollywood. It read like a Hollywood movie, still does. And that's why there's so much fascination decades later. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGMEISTER (voice over): It's a story Nelson has lived now for decades.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NELSON: Only in this kind of a profession can you play the guy and then 20 years later play the guy's dad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGMEISTER (voice over): In 2018, Nelson returned to play Hunt's father in a big screen version of "The Billionaire Boys Club."

[18:55:05]

He says the new docuseries brings a timeless lesson to a new generation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NELSON: Hiding in plain sight are many things that are dangerous to us. So, we are vulnerable to people that say good things to us, that compliment us, that like us or pretend to like us. It's a cautionary tale.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WAGMEISTER (voice over): Elizabeth Wagmeister, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

DEAN: Elizabeth, thank you. And be sure to tune in the new CNN Original Series, "Billionaire Boys Club," airs Sunday at 10 P.M. Eastern and Pacific, only on CNN.

And new tonight, President Trump is making it clear he is behind Attorney General Pam Bondi as she's facing some scrutiny from MAGA world over her handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

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