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Police: Berlin Pride Parade Called Off After Car Hits Parade; Maine Dems Pick Troy Jackson For Senate Nominee; Intense Wildfires Force Evacuations Across France; Berlin PD: One Dead, 15 Hurt After Car Drives Into Pride Parade; Ben Sasse Is Going Home; Lessons On Life & Death; NJ Gov. Vows To Fix Glitch That Allow Non-Citizens To Vote; Trump Jokes, Attacks Journalists & Political Foes At Dinner Re-do; Trump's Approval Rating Remains Low Across Polls. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired July 25, 2026 - 18:00   ET

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

[18:00:32]

DANNY FREEMAN, CNN HOST: Good evening. Welcome on in. You are in the CNN NEWSROOM. I am Danny Freeman in New York.

We are following breaking news this hour out of Berlin, Germany, where one of Europe's largest Pride Parades has been called off by organizers after a car crashed into a crowd.

Several people have been injured, according to police, who say they are searching intensively for suspects.

Fred Pleitgen joins us now from Berlin. He is on the phone.

Fred, what can you tell us about this really intense scene that we are looking at right here.

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via phone): Yes, this is something, Danny, that's clearly still very much in the early stages and still unfolding.

The latest that we have from Berlin Police is they say that all of this happened around 10:00 P.M. local time. Right now, it is about midnight. So it is about two hours ago and it really happened right in the center of Berlin, right near the Brandenburg Gate, where this Pride Parade, the Christopher Street Day Parade was taking place at that point in time.

Now, you're absolutely right. It has been called off right now. There was a new update that came out from the Berlin Police a couple of minutes ago, about eight minutes ago, where they said, right now there is an intense manhunt underway for one or more of possible perpetrators.

Again, they don't know who is behind this. They don't know exactly what is behind this, whether or not this was intentional, but they do know that there are a lot of people who were injured. The latest that we've gotten from the Berlin Police is that they say that there are many people who were injured, some of them with life-threatening injuries, so it is unclear in what direction this is going to go. But I can tell you from the authorities here that this has already been declared a mass casualty event, that a lot of hospitals right now are ambulances there to the scene, obviously, that area there around the Brandenburg Gate in the center of Berlin that has been widely cordoned off, and people are being told to go home now or to go to any place that is safe, as again, the manhunt is still underway for the possible perpetrators, the people who did this, whether or not this was intentional or whether or not this was an accident, but certainly something that has being taken very, very seriously by the authorities there in Berlin.

And again, this parade there, this event has been called off.

FREEMAN: All right, CNN senior international correspondent, Fred Pleitgen on the ground for us in Berlin. We are going to check back in with you, I am sure as this scary situation unfolds in the center of Berlin. Appreciate your time tonight.

All right, tonight, we are also following this story: Maine Democrats have a new Senate nominee who will face off against incumbent Republican Senator Susan Collins this November. In a nearly unanimous vote, delegates chose Troy Jackson as the replacement for Graham Platner in one of the country's most high-stakes Senate races this year.

Platner dropped out earlier this month after he was accused of rape. He has denied that accusation.

There are now just over three months until Election Day, CNN chief national affairs correspondent, Jeff Zeleny spoke with Troy Jackson and has more details.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Danny, Maine Democrats finally turning the page after a summer long stretch of unusual drama, replacing their candidate at the top of the ticket to run against Susan Collins, they settled on Troy Jackson, who is a former President of the Maine State Senate. He ran for governor here and lost the primary just last month, and now he is going to become the Senate nominee, a fairly anticlimactic state convention here, as an overwhelming number of delegates voted for Jackson, he wasted no time going after Senator Susan Collins.

TROY JACKSON (D), MAINE SENATORIAL CANDIDATE: Susan Collins keeps telling us everything is just fine. And you know, they act like, you know, we are idiots, but, you know, we know it isn't. You know, we all have eyes. We can see what is happening. We can see our paychecks and the bills that we have.

And we know that we are getting screwed and we also know who is to blame and I am running to change that.

ZELENY: So Jackson delivered a populist working class message, really honing in on affordability and also asking Maine voters what Senator Collins has done for them over her last 30 years in the Senate. But he also has to unify Democrats, there is no doubt about that. So we caught up with him after that nomination speech to ask him about the energy from Graham Platner, the previous candidate's campaign.

Harnessing the energy that Graham Platner brought without being consumed by the baggage. How do you do that?

[18:05:02]

JACKSON: Graham just tapped into, I believe, what was already there, people's frustration, you know, their anger that the government was not working for them. This is not about Graham. It is about the movement, the people, the issues. It is bigger than any one person I know for a fact, it is bigger than me.

ZELENY: Of course, a central challenge will be tapping into that energy without perhaps becoming consumed by some of the baggage from the Platner campaign, but there was indeed a lot of energy here today in Bangor, and this remains one of the most consequential Senate races in the country.

Of course, it will develop over the next 100 days. They are still trying to define Troy Jackson and of course, make this a referendum against Susan Collins.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FREEMAN: Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much for that report.

Joining us now is the Director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics, Larry Sabato.

Larry, thank you so much for getting on board with us on a Saturday evening. Let's start right where Jeff left off.

How critical is this race for Democrats if they actually want to take back the Senate?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, it is really critical because at a minimum, they need four seats. They can worry about Senator John Fetterman from Pennsylvania later. He may, may or may not switch parties. He says no, but we will see.

So in order to do that, and looking at the map, the easiest seat to switch, you would think is Maine, because Maine pretty consistently votes Democratic for president. And yet, Susan Collins is running for her sixth term. She has won five times, and during a lot of that time, Maine did favor Democrats, but she won anyway and they needed a strong candidate and a smooth campaign. Well, they got anything but that because of Graham Platner.

Now, the good news for Democrats is they got rid of Platner or he got rid of himself faster than many people thought would happen and they managed to unify and they did unify around Troy Jackson. He got almost a hundred percent of the vote at this convention. It could have turned into a disaster, it didn't.

But they have a long way to go to actually take the seat and without Maine's seat, it becomes ever so much more difficult for them to win the Senate back.

FREEMAN: You know, Larry, I am old enough to remember another high- profile race where Democrats at the last minute changed their candidate, leaving a new candidate with a truncated race that perhaps they would have otherwise had.

I mean, what are the chances that Democrats actually are able to unseat an incumbent who has proved resilient over the years in Susan Collins?

SABATO: Well, it is not going to be easy. However, Maine is not the United States, I am assuming, since you're not very old, you were referring to 2024 with Kamala Harris.

FREEMAN: Yes. Yes.

SABATO: That was a terrible situation and now the shoe is on the other foot because, of course, the economic problems are saddled with the Republicans rather than with the Democrats. So, you know, I wouldn't -- I would say that it is if not an even race, then close to even if Troy Jackson can continue to unify his party and campaign without mishaps, there are going to be a lot of investigations into him. The Republicans, I am sure, are going to come after him and air a lot of negative ads, probably quickly, rather than wait until the fall.

So they have a tough row to hoe, no question about it, but it is much better than it was when Graham Platner was sinking into all of those scandals.

FREEMAN: Larry, another critical Senate seat for Democrats if they want to try and be competitive in November when it comes to the Senate is Michigan. Governor Gretchen Whitmer weighed in on that Democratic primary, endorsing Haley Stevens over progressive candidate, Abdul El- Sayed. I am curious, how much do you think that kind of endorsement might sway voters? Because, again, that's a very competitive race right now.

SABATO: It is competitive and Governor Whitmer is still popular even after eight years as governor. She can't run again because of term limits. I think it is going to help Haley Stevens, whether it is enough to win, I don't know, and you never know with endorsements, they can fade quickly.

But remember, the primary is August 4th, so this was a strategically timed endorsement. So I would say, it is a plus. I don't know if it is a big plus, but it is a plus for Haley Stevens.

FREEMAN: You know, it is interesting because Governor Whitmer though popular in the state she may be, she also has kind of ruled herself out of a 2028 contenders. So is she at risk if Stevens loses, does she risk her own political capital at all? Or does it not really matter in your eyes? SABATO: I don't think it matters. People forget things like this quickly, and the fact that she has ruled herself out means that she is out until we get to the actual campaign season, which will be after the midterm elections are over. And you know how politicians can turn on a dime. So we will see whether that holds.

FREEMAN: I want to ask you one other thing, Larry, about your new analysis on gubernatorial races, because you recently moved three races, as I understand, to look better, actually, for Democrats.

What are you watching for when it comes to these gubernatorial races ahead of Election Day?

[18:10:10]

SABATO: Well, Danny, you start with the fact that this is a Democratic year to one degree or another. You know, I can't tell you at the end of July whether there is going to be just a ripple or there is going to be a medium-sized Democratic wave or there will be a tsunami, nobody knows, because we don't know what will happen with the war and gas prices and affordability and all the rest of it.

But, it is going to have a Democratic cast. It is a midterm election and Donald Trump, let's face it, is a very controversial Republican President. Now, states like Michigan, it is easier to call them and I think the Democrats, in the end, will probably keep the Michigan governorship, which isn't easy.

The last time a new Democratic governor succeeded an old Democratic the governor was in 1960. It hasn't happened for a long time, and don't tell me you were around then, you weren't, but I was.

Right now, there are other states, like New Mexico, where the Democrats were very likely to win, anyway, we've moved that into safe Democratic because there is nothing there for the Republicans.

The other states, it is interesting to watch what is happening. Ohio, which has turned very Republican and Iowa too, are now getting close to real competitive races for governor. If anything, the Democrat may be ahead in Iowa. So those are the races you look to see what kind of wave, what height of wave there actually is.

FREEMAN: Well, a lot of races certainly to look forward to.

Larry Sabato, always appreciate your insight. Yes, it is great talking to you as always. Really appreciate it on this Saturday night.

SABATO: Thanks, Danny. Okay. Thank you.

FREEMAN: Goodnight.

To this now, tonight in Europe, wildfires raging. More than 250,000 people in France and Spain have been forced to flee from their homes as the now deadly wildfires sweep across Southwest Europe, and the fires in Spain have killed at least one person, according to authorities with the fire rapidly spreading due to the adverse weather conditions.

Now the fires in France are tearing across the Gironde and Landes areas with intense flames sweeping through forests and burning down homes. Authorities in France also deploying Europe's biggest military cargo plane today to help fight those fires, and 2.5 million filtering face masks are being distributed to help address health concerns from the ongoing smoke.

CNN's Melissa Bell joins us now from Bordeaux.

Melissa, what more are you seeing there again, as families seek refuge behind you?

MELISSA BELL, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We've been hearing from the French Prime Minister about the fact that there are currently 30 wildfires raging in France. The biggest one, of course, is here in the Gironde region of France. This is Bordeaux's Exhibition Center, where some 7,000 of the 200,000 that have now been evacuated from their homes across France are being sheltered, and they are really doing what they can to sleep on cots.

They are being fed. There are medical facilities here to try and help them, but many of them just received texts in the middle of the night telling them to get their stuff and go. So they've come with their children, their pets, and a bag full of what they could grab, very little certainty about what is now happening to their homes, very little certainty or insight into how long they are likely to be here and that's very worrying to a lot of them.

What we've been hearing now is that many of the people here had come from some of those towns to the west of Bordeaux that were evacuated overnight. Another five towns are being evacuated, we are hearing, which is again, the suggestion that this fire, the biggest one now raging in France, continues to spread.

It is extremely violent. The conditions in terms of the weather haven't helped. There has been wind. There has been heat, and the wind has been changing direction so that the more than 1,500 firefighters now are really struggling to contain it. It is nowhere near contained for the time being. In fact, it continues to spread.

So a lot of fears about how much more this fire can spread, and of course, how many more people are likely to be evacuated as a result. It is, of course, also with the help of European allies, that the French are trying to cope. They have had planes and resources sent from other European countries as they try and contain this particular wildfire, its ferocity really quite spectacular.

Just in terms of what has brought us here, we've had a summer of successive heat waves, record temperatures set across the country over the course of the summer. And already this year, 300 wildfires, when the national average here in France is about 93 in a year. It is a year of many records and none of them happy ones.

FREEMAN: Well, Melissa, this also comes as there are fires in Spain as well, raging. What can you tell us there? BELL: That's right. These are wildfires again, that are in several different parts of Spain. There has been a lot of attention focused on the ones to the west of Madrid, about 60,000 people had to be evacuated there over the last couple of days to try and protect them from this wildfire that appeared to be growing out of control. But there are other fires, for instance, outside of Valencia, and that is where, sadly, we've heard that a man in his 70s who was slightly handicapped was unable to flee the flames and died in the flames near his orchard.

[18:15:15]

So that is, sadly the kind of human toll that you're likely to hear more of. Just here, outside of Bordeaux, near the airport earlier this week, two firefighters were killed in a wildfire there -- Danny.

FREEMAN: And again, thinking of those families and first responders on the front lines there.

Melissa Bell, thank you so much for that reporting and stay safe yourself.

Okay, still ahead, no new overnight strikes between the U.S. and Iran for the first time in nearly two weeks. We are live from The White House with an update on what could come next.

You're in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:20:27]

FREEMAN: We have more breaking news this evening. The U.S. Military said it boarded a tanker in the Arabian Sea today as part of its blockade of Iranian ports. U.S. Central Command says that the naval blockade against Iran remains in full effect.

Now, it all comes even as for the first time in nearly two weeks, neither the U.S. nor Iran seem to carry out serious attacks overnight. But the apparent pause in strikes does not mean the conflict is any less fraught as a new front is emerging in the war, this time in the Red Sea.

This morning, Iranian backed rebel group, the Houthis attacking Saudi Arabian targets on the coast.

CNN's senior White House reporter, Betsy Klein joins us now.

Betsy, what's the latest here?

BETSY KLEIN, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER AND WRITER: Well, Danny, the short answer is we just don't know how much to read into what appears to be a pause in strikes in Iran, a relatively quiet night last night after 13 consecutive nights of U.S. launched strikes. But this comes after U.S. Intelligence agencies had assessed in recent days that the types of limited strikes that the U.S. had been carrying out were unlikely to shift Iran's negotiation position.

President Trump, in his view, does not believe that Iran is ready yet to come to the table and negotiate in a meaningful way. He also offered some view into his head space yesterday. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Look, we are talking to them right now. I think they are getting more and more serious as the days go by, for maybe the obvious reason, but we are talking to them right now.

Well, look, there are two ways -- I consider that the smarter way, but the other is probably the easier way, doing what we are doing and we can take that to a much higher level if we want to. You know, we are prepared to do that, as you know, we are locked and loaded.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KLEIN: Now, just about five months into this war, the President has limited options. He can pursue that diplomatic path, which, after that ceasefire and Memorandum of Understanding, have totally broken down, have really proven to not yet be successful. He can maintain the status quo, these limited strikes, as I mentioned earlier, or he can escalate.

The President has previewed the possibility of really ramping up with attacks on critical infrastructure, things like roads, bridges, Kharg Island, that key oil hub, as well as the possibility of strikes on Pickaxe Mountain, which is believed to be an Iranian nuclear site.

But as we are trying to ascertain what exactly to make of this apparent pause in strikes, a senior U.S. official telling me, "President Trump has always been clear that his preference is diplomacy, but he has shown Iran what will happen if they fail to come to the table in a serious way."

The question right now is whether Iran or whether President Trump believes that that bar is being met for some serious diplomacy going forward, but this is clearly a moment of extreme political pressure on the President. Public opinion shows that this war is deeply unpopular with the American people. Gas prices ticking up to $4.11 a gallon, according to AAA on average, and the midterms are now just three months away.

So all of that weighing on President Trump as he plots a path forward -- Danny.

FREEMAN: Yes, weighing on the President indeed. All right, Betsy Klein, thank you so much for that reporting as always. Appreciate it.

And we are joined now by retired U.S. Army Major General Randy Manner. He served as the Deputy Commanding General of the U.S. Third Army in Kuwait.

General, good to have you here this evening. From a military perspective, what does it signal to you that there were no reported strikes from either side, really overnight?

MAJOR GENERAL RANDY MANNER (RET), FORMER DEPUTY COMMANDING GENERAL OF THE U.S. THIRD ARMY IN KUWAIT: Well, it is always good that hopefully there is a de-escalation -- that's always good for both sides. The other side of the coin is, is that that is also a precursor to perhaps preparing for much larger strikes to come.

So I think in addition to what was said by the previous reporter, it is very likely because the status quo attacks the United States has been doing have had minimal to no impact on shifting the Iranian position and getting them to the bargaining table.

FREEMAN: Well, let's talk a little bit more about that, because for almost two weeks straight, right, the U.S. conducted nightly strikes against Iran. What do you see, if anything was achieved during that period? Because, I mean, I guess if it resulted in this de-escalation, that's one thing, but it doesn't seem like much came of that. No?

MANNER: It was a complete waste of armaments, a complete waste of lives on both sides and the result is, is that we now -- it has been verified and validated by the Iranians that our President, unfortunately, is a paper tiger. He threatens constantly, but the reality is he has been unsuccessful in bringing the Iranians to the table.

Quite frankly, I think the President is desperate to get back to the day before he started this war and would be very -- he would be very happy with having the Strait reopened.

[18:25:10]

Remember, by his own words, he said that we've destroyed the Iranians' capability to enrich uranium, twice, he has said this already, so I am not quite sure what we are doing there and what the end game is.

FREEMAN: I am curious your perspective on this breaking news that we led this segment with saying that the U.S. Military boarded a tanker in the Arabian Sea as it continues this naval blockade of Iranian ports.

Again, this update just coming in the past few moments, I guess, my question to you is, does this continue to show that the U.S. Navy is in control of a lot of the areas around these ports?

MANNER: The U.S. Navy is doing a terrific job of being able to intercept vessels either going in or trying to leave through the Strait, at the same time, we have to remember that the geography favors the Iranians as well as, of course, the small, inexpensive drones favor the Iranians as well.

So this is something where at the very best, by CENTCOM's own press release two weeks ago, only 15 percent of the of the oil tankers were being able to get through compared to pre-war conditions.

So right now, this is just ongoing operations by the U.S. Navy.

FREEMAN: Another front has opened up in this war that has caught a lot of people's attention between the Houthis and Saudi Arabia, the Houthis, of course, in Yemen.

From your perspective, how do you see that element of this playing out? And does it risk inflaming tensions even more in the region?

MANNER: Absolutely. This is a very dangerous expansion and again, the Iranians have provided the Houthis with these missiles and with these drones and it is something where whether they are being told to do it or doing it on their own, I don't know, I have not been able to ascertain through open press reporting, but the bottom line is, is that they are demonstrating that they also can impact the Red Sea.

And this is a significant new development where they are finding that they don't need a nuclear weapon there either. They can literally shut down a Strait in the same way that the Iranians can.

So this is a very, very dangerous escalation that, quite frankly, the average American does not understand how important and how dangerous this is.

FREEMAN: Well, but to that point, I mean, does an escalation like that risk the U.S. considering actually getting involved on that front as well? I mean, that certainly would -- you know, once U.S. officials are more keyed into that, that would be something that would certainly get our attention.

MANNER: Absolutely. That's correct. And that's why I am saying that this is, again, it is very painful for Americans to truly realize that this is a -- this whole Iran War is really a disastrous National Security defeat. We have literally devoted over, probably over a hundred billion dollars of American taxpayer money and many lives and many hundreds of U.S. wounded, let alone of the enemy as well.

And to what end? We are now worse off paying $4.00 -- approximately $4.00 a gallon, food prices are higher, and the result is our readiness for our military continues to drop because this war is being paid for out of existing accounts of other accounts to operate the war.

So this is painfully reducing the ability of the United States to defend itself, let alone do large scale operations over a long period of time.

FREEMAN: Going back to where we began, hopefully, de-escalation or diplomacy is on the horizon with this pause in strikes overnight.

General Randy Manner, thank you so much for sharing your perspective and opinion this evening. Appreciate it.

MANNER: Thank you, sir.

FREEMAN: Still ahead, we are following breaking news, a manhunt underway right now in Berlin after a vehicle drove into crowds at Pride celebrations. We have the latest on the hunt for suspects after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:33:26]

FREEMAN: Breaking news, tonight in Berlin, Berlin police say one person is dead and 15 people are hurt after a car drove into a crowd of people at one of Europe's biggest pride parades. Right now there is an active manhunt for the suspects. Police have also said that some of the injuries are life-threatening. We're going to continue to monitor this breaking news story situation as it develops throughout the evening.

To this now, last December former senator, Ben Sasse, was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer and doctors gave him just months to live. He recently sat down with Jake Tapper for an emotional conversation about facing death and what comes after. Take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BEN SASSE, FORMER SENATOR: I felt the heaviness of death being terrible and obviously not wanting your wife to go through being widowed or your kids to be orphaned, to lose their dad, but I -- I just felt at peace that death is real. I've always known we're all on the clock and to get a finite number felt horrible but not surprising.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Your faith is, it always has been remarkable, but never more so I think as somebody who's long admired and covered you during this period, just your -- your supreme confidence in what happens next and that you will see your loved ones again. And do you ever have any moments of -- of doubt about any of it?

[18:35:06]

SASSE: I mean ...

TAPPER: Let me just say I ...

SASSE: Sure.

TAPPER: ... I envy you. I wish I felt that way. I think there are a lot of people probably watching who think, God what a gift.

SASSE: I think death is wicked, but I don't think it's a surprise to any of us who reckon hard with a conscience that says we're broken, this world is broken, things are not as they should be. So, to your direct question, no I don't -- I don't doubt it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FREEMAN: You can watch the rest of Sasse's emotional interview about life and death on "The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper" airing tomorrow at 8 P.M. Eastern right here on CNN and Monday on the CNN app.

Still to come, the governor of New Jersey reveals a software glitch in the state's election system. We're going to talk to an expert about what happened and why it may actually prove strong safeguards around the nation's elections coming up after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:40]

FREEMAN: New Jersey Governor Mikie Sherrill says she will not hand over data to the Justice Department on people who were accidentally added to voter rolls even though they are not U.S. citizens. The governor revealed this week that 6,600 people were registered as voters because of a, quote, "serious software glitch." She says this was through no fault of their own as they indicated they were not citizens when they applied for their driver's licenses.

Since 2023, nearly 400 improper votes were also cast. These elections though are where millions of eligible New Jersey voters voted so it does not appear this influenced any outcomes. For more on this let's discuss with Carter Walker, a senior reporter for Votebeat.

Carter thank you so much for joining us on a Saturday evening.

So, you pointed out that there are actually similarities between what happened in New Jersey and a case with a software glitch actually in Pennsylvania several years ago. Can you just share with our viewers what can New Jersey learn from how Pennsylvania handled a similar issue?

CARTER WALKER, SENIOR REPORTER FOR VOTEBEAT: Sure. I think there's a lot of similarities between what happened in New Jersey or what we learned about this week and the similar situation in Pennsylvania in 2017. In New Jersey these voters had marked no I'm not a citizen but yes I'm interested in registering to vote and that system hadn't automatically blocked them from registering to vote.

In 2017, very similar the non-citizens when they were going to apply for a driver's license in Pennsylvania they provided some documentation to the state showing that they were a non-citizen but still were allowed to go through with the voter registration process again because they weren't -- there wasn't a system in place to automatically block them from interacting.

In both cases in Pennsylvania and in New Jersey, the software has been updated to prevent that kind of crossover from happening again. But I think the real takeaway for New Jersey is what we saw here in Pennsylvania kind of follow up to the situation just in April. We have a Republican auditor general here in the state and he recently audited our motor voter system to make sure it was working properly and he found that by and large you know he recommended some small changes but by and large found that the system was operating properly wasn't registering people who shouldn't be eligible to vote.

He did find one instance where a non-citizen had registered to vote through the system but that wasn't due to the kind of software error that we saw in 2017 that was due to human error on the staff -- part of the staff. So, I think that's the takeaway that Jersey can take from Pennsylvania is follow up on the situation, make sure that the changes that they implemented actually resolve the issue.

FREEMAN: Well to put a finer point on it just because you cover voting basically every single day, Democratic Senator Andy Kim of New Jersey told CNN someone should probably be fired over this mistake. An independent investigation has been commissioned but can you explain how much is this about the technology from as far as we know so far versus human error for which someone should be fired?

WALKER: Yes, like you said we're covering elections every day at Votebeat. And I find that in a lot of the situations like this, whether it's a, you know, error with our motor voter system or you know some kind of programming error with our voting machines on election day, it really becomes, you know, two sides of the same coin. It's something like a -- a human will improperly put a one where there's a zero or yes where there should be a no and that results in these, you know, when there's a large-scale error usually these investigations trace back to something like that.

So, I think that, you know, that is the thing that New Jersey and other states need to be looking at is are the systems that you've implemented are you sure that you implemented to them in the way that you meant to?

FREEMAN: Now, it's interesting Carter, President Trump recently singled out California, Nevada, New Jersey and Pennsylvania as having as he claims 278,000 non-citizens registered to vote. From as far as we can tell it when it comes to reporting out there, is there any truth to that?

WALKER: Yes, I think we're still waiting to get some more details on that announcement from the President. He had his primetime address a little over a week ago now where he made that announcement and then that evening and the next day the Department of Homeland Security which did the investigation that they say found that -- that number of non-citizens registered, reached out to the states and provided them information.

But what we really haven't gotten from the administration yet and I know I've asked -- I know the states have asked I'm sure reporters at CNN have asked is a specific methodology that they use to determine that those people were non-citizens.

[18:45:11]

The states that you listed are ones that have declined to provide the Department of Justice with their expanded voter rolls the department has been seeking that versions that include driver's license and social security numbers so that they can check whether the states are complying with federal voter registration law but since the department doesn't have that, the question is okay exactly how did you match these people with the people on our public versions of our voter rolls to know that they are non-citizens. And that question methodology is really important the Department of Homeland Security has a tool that they've created for states to use to check eligibility of their voters and a judge recently ruled or found that that tool had been erroneously flagging citizens as ineligible to vote, so I think that's why people are interested in seeing specifically how that determination on the 278,000 was made.

FREEMAN: Carter Walker, thank you so much for sharing your expertise again when that problem with New Jersey came up I thought of you and Pennsylvania because it sounded familiar and I appreciate you breaking down why. Thanks much.

WALKER: Very familiar, thanks for having me.

FREEMAN: All right, still ahead, President Trump cracks jokes and points fun at the press during the White House Correspondents' Dinner, but not everyone was laughing. We have the latest on the President's approval rating and how his second term is shaping up heading into the midterms coming up next.

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[18:51:09]

FREEMAN: President Trump mixed jokes with insults of journalists at last night's White House Correspondents' Dinner. The do-over dinner came after a gunman opened fire and cut the original event short back in April. President Trump attacked the press and his political opponents while also joking about running for a third term. This is the first time President Trump has ever attended the dinner while in office. CNN's Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten runs the numbers on the President's current approval rating among the American public.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN CHIEF DATA ANALYST: Hey, there, Danny. Happy Saturday to you. Look, I don't really know what the heck it was that I watched last night, but after last night and the White House Correspondents' Dinner and -- and the speech or whatever that was from President Trump, I don't want us to lose sight of the fact that President Trump is amazingly unpopular with the American public right now. What are we talking about?

Well, just to put it into some perspective for you I put four different polls for you on the screen here. This is his net approval rating in them. These all came out or all conducted during the month of July and you see a lot of red because President Trump is not just in the red he is in the dark red.

Look at this, CNBC the best of the bunch 19 points underwater on the net approval rating. That's approval minus disapproval. How about Fox? Minus 22 points. How about the Washington Post? Minus 24 points. And then, Pew Research that came out late this last week 30 points underwater. My goodness gracious. He's down there at the bottom of the Hudson River.

We're not just talking red. I mentioned dark, but we're talking crimson red in terms of how far underwater President Trump is right now when it comes to his overall popularity now what is driving this unpopularity for President Trump. Simply put, it is the economy. It is the economy, smarty pants, I'm talking to you, Danny F. What are we talking about?

Well, Trump's economic net approval rating and I want you to take a look I want to make a comparison between Trump's two terms in office at this time in Trump's terms in July of 2018 the economy that was a strength, that was a strength for President Trump. He was above water. That is his approval rating. It was 10 points above his disapproval rating. Look at where we are now. We are talking about a 44 point shift in the wrong direction.

Again, we got the red on your screen right here. Look at this, President Trump is 34 points underwater on the economy in the latest Fox News poll. And if you think -- you think the 34 points underwater is bad, look at that. I have that little note, I'm not sure you can see it, but that is a 52 points -- 52 points underwater with independents. Independents, of course, being the name of the game when it comes to elections. You've got to win independents or at least come close with them in order to win election. President Trump isn't anywhere close to positive territory.

Now, speaking of elections, you know I think perhaps there's some Republicans out there saying, hey, you know what, President Trump is one thing. He's not on the ballot come November. But what gets President Trump will likely also get Republicans in Congress. Why do I say that? Well, let's take a look here. Okay, trusted more on the economy. The economy was why President Trump won a second term in office back in 2024. And when voters were asked who do you trust more in the economy, Donald Trump or Kamala Harris, according to Fox, look at that Trump was trusted more by eight points.

Look at where we are now, just a few months ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. What was an advantage for Trump, the reason he got elected for a second term may be the exact same reason that Republicans are turned out of power? Look at this now, Democrats have a nine-point advantage on the economy, according to the latest Fox News poll. If these numbers hold, for the November elections and the economy is the number one issue, inflation, the cost of living, the economy, I really just don't see how Republicans can hold on to power in the House.

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But you know what, Danny, you're always holding on to power when it comes to our conversations and so therefore I toss it back to you.

FREEMAN: Harry E, thanks so much as always. Appreciate it.

All right, still to come on CNN NEWSROOM, we're following breaking news, a manhunt is underway right now in Berlin after a deadly crash. A vehicle driving into crowds at pride celebrations. We're live on the scene as police hunt for suspects. Stay with us.

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