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Search and Rescue Operations Ongoing in Central Texas; Israel- Hamas Gaza Ceasefire Talks Underway in Doha. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired July 08, 2025 - 06:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[06:00:02]
AUDIE CORNISH, CNN ANCHOR: It's Tuesday, July 8. And here's what's happening right now on CNN THIS MORNING.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My daughter nearly was washed away. And my son grabbed her and saved her by her hair.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Stories of heartbreak and survival in Texas as the death toll from those devastating floods rise. Now questions mount about whether more lives could have been spared.
And is momentum growing for a ceasefire deal in Gaza? The latest from both sides of the negotiations.
And the Trump administration faces a right-wing revolt as the Justice Department closes the book on the case of Jeffrey Epstein.
It's 6 a.m. here on the East Coast, but here's a live look at San Antonio, Texas, in the region that everybody has been thinking about this week after the tragedy of those floods.
Good morning, everybody. I want to thank you for waking up with me. I'm Audie Cornish.
And here's where we begin: with more than 100 lives lost and dozens of people still missing, including ten young summer campers. And even though the skies are clearing in central Texas, the flood threat remains.
Now, there are questions about whether more could have been done to prevent this once-in-a-generation disaster.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR JOE HERRING, KERRVILLE, TEXAS: I think everyone in Kerrville, everyone in Kerr County wishes to God we'd had some way to warn them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We didn't even know that -- the outside consequences of this geoengineering. HERRING: To warn those people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: It appears warnings failed to reach Camp Mystic in time. At least 27 campers and counselors are now confirmed dead. Ten other children and a counselor remain missing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Lord of love has come to me. I want to pass it on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Lord of love has come to me. I want to pass it on.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Lord of love has come to me. I want to pass it on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: This is video of Mystic camp members singing hymns. This was after they managed to get on a bus and make it out alive as the waters came rushing in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CAROLINA CUTRONA, CAMP MYSTIC COUNSELOR: No one thought that that water could do all of that damage in such a short amount of time.
If I could have been down where all that water was, I know I could have helped. And I hate that I couldn't have helped those girls on the flats.
Camp Mystic's the safest place I've ever known, and I just couldn't believe it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Now, this morning, more than 20 state agencies are assisting with search-and-rescue operations as residents question how such a wide-scale disaster could strike with so little warning.
Lisa Falkenberg joins me live from Houston. She's a senior columnist with "The Houston Chronicle."
And, Lisa, I know you've -- your columnists and you have actually been on the ground in Kerrville. You went to church services on Sunday. You've been inside the shelters.
Can you talk about some of what you're hearing from the survivors?
LISA FALKENBERG, SENIOR COLUMNIST, "THE HOUSTON CHRONICLE": Yes, I think right now, it's -- it's just a lot of grief. The church service I attended, you know, the pastor, Del Way at Calvary Temple Church, he was trying to persuade those in attendance to lean on God and not to ask too many questions, frankly, right now, because nobody knows the answers.
Of course, journalists have been asking questions, and a lot of people are wondering why more couldn't be done to prevent this tragedy. Even in a place called, you know, Flash Flood Alley.
CORNISH: You actually had done some reporting in the past about how Texas was trying to be kind of more independent from FEMA. Were you seeing some of its efforts on display in the reaction and support?
FALKENBERG: Definitely. I think that Texas had some foresight to start investing, and billions and billions, into the rescue and search operations. And that means helicopters, boats that are strategically positioned.
[06:05:06]
It means MRES, water, whatever is needed right in the aftermath of a hurricane or flood, and wildfire, an event like this. And it -- it paid off. I think that even people who, you know, are suffering right now look at this and they say everything -- they have confidence that everything possible is being done to find their loved ones.
CORNISH: We talked earlier, and you mentioned people raising questions about the alert system, about warnings.
There's also been another kind of response online from the wider public to this tragedy, one that you've described as appalling. Can you talk about how people are hearing it? Because I'm sure it might be unavoidable.
FALKENBERG: Yes. I mean, if -- anybody who's been on, you know, any social media lately has seen some really ugly things. They've seen mourning parents dismissed because of their presumed political party. You know, this is a very conservative area. A lot of these people affected are white.
There are people out there who are harshly judging them because of those things: "Oh, they mustn't believe in climate change. Oh, they probably voted, you know, President Trump." So somehow this was coming to them.
There are also, you know, hoaxes out there. It was shocking yesterday to learn from law enforcement officials in Kerr County that some grieving parents are actually being targeted by scammers who took advantage of their phone numbers being disseminated early to try and help with the identification of their children.
You know, I can't remember seeing anything like this since maybe Alec [SIC] Jones -- Alex Jones and the way that he claimed that the Sandy Hook family somehow perpetuated a hoax and faked their children's deaths. It's -- it's terrible.
I think most of us can't even imagine targeting parents that are already grieving so much.
CORNISH: Yes, it's compounding their grief. And I get the sense causing some of them to withdraw, right? Even -- even in the very early moments of -- of trying to find their children or trying to kind of -- maybe in the past they would have worked in public to get more support, but now it's feeling like that's not the case?
FALKENBERG: Right. I mean, I sense more fear. A lot has changed. I mean, I think there's just more anxiety about talking with the media. Who is the media, because if anybody can be out there with a camera reporting, who do you trust?
But I've covered, you know, wildfires, floods, you know, Columbia shuttle disaster, whatever, what you name it, in the past 20 years. And I haven't seen this kind of hesitancy about, you know, sharing identities and stories and.
And, you know, I've really been looking for some inspiring stories, you know, stories of camp counselors who rose above and beyond what their age, you know, would typically -- but yesterday I was talking with a mom and daughter, and they were sharing so much. The mom had attended Camp Mystic. The daughter had. It was a beautiful thing.
I mean, the daughter said it was the closest she'd ever been to God. And she explained a very, you know, terrifying rescue where they were literally holding onto a rope to get to safety through the floodwaters and flighted away by with a -- you know, inside a helicopter.
And then a short time later, you know, the mom texted me and said, actually, I'm so sorry. We shouldn't have -- have spoken. We shouldn't have, you know, used our names.
Because we're seeing now that the children's names are being used in fake obits or, you know, some kind of, you know, fake suggestion that one of the children did something, you know, I don't know, untoward in their -- in their rescue. It was terrible.
And these people do not want their children to be victimized, even -- even more than they already have been.
CORNISH: That's Lisa Falkenberg. Thank you so much for speaking with us.
FALKENBERG: Thank you.
CORNISH: And as you're watching this, you might want more information about how you can help Texas flood victims. Please go to CNN.com/impact or text "flood" to 707070.
And still ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, the search for victims and answers continues in Texas. What officials are saying about the warnings sent out before those devastating floods swept through.
Plus, Sean Combs back in court after his partial acquittal in his federal criminal case. How much longer will he be behind bars?
[06:10:00]
And why President Trump was left nearly speechless by his latest visitor to the White House.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, U.S. PRESIDENT: Thank you very much. This I didn't know. But --
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CORNISH: The Trump administration's approach to emergency management is under scrutiny after the Texas floods.
Cuts to FEMA and a shift towards states handling disaster relief efforts has left some communities wondering who's really in charge.
Now, all this as the National Weather Service faces questions about whether it should have sounded the alarm sooner.
[06:15:07]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GOV. DAN PATRICK (R-TX): It's clear that one thing that could help in the future, it would seem, no matter what other redundancies we have, are sirens that could blast very loudly. And if the city can't afford to do it, then we'll step in the state.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer sent a letter to the agency's inspector general to determine if any of the recent staffing reductions contributed to the flooding fatalities.
As search and rescue efforts continue, Texas Senator Ted Cruz is calling for a combo of caution and patience.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): I think this is not a time for partisan finger- pointing and attacks. Now, after we come through search and rescue, after we come through the process of rebuilding, there will naturally be a period of retrospection.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CORNISH: Joining me now in the group chat, Evan McMorris Santoro, national political reporter at "NOTUS"; Ashley Davis, former George W. Bush White House official; and Democratic strategist Chuck Rocha.
And Chuck, I want to start with you, because you're always, you know, talking about being from Texas.
CHUCK ROCHA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Right.
CORNISH: And I can't imagine -- I don't know if you're hearing from family or how this -- how you're thinking about it.
ROCHA: My nephew lives just North of this area, and I've spent a bunch of time. And this is a river bottom and not in this area by Fredericksburg and Kerrville. It's a big hunting region. When I was a young man, I spent a lot of time walking the riverbeds.
There was not even a lot of water there, but there were lots of beds.
And it's -- you've heard a lot of your reporters refer to it as a flood zone. So, when you get a lot of water upstream, you get flooding. But nothing like this and the catastrophe that we've seen.
And everybody always looks back at, like, what can we do? And partisans like me and others, we like to throw mud at each other, say it's your fault. It's your fault.
But there's real things at risk here. And things that I think could have been done. And I think there will be a reckoning when it's over because of the mass loss of children. When we talk about children, there's a whole 'nother level. All of us have children.
CORNISH: I know.
ROCHA: We think about that.
And the one piece I would say is there was some reporting in "The New York Times." There's definitely been some vacancies in some of these departments.
But I was thinking this morning, driving in, if you take a little girl or a little boy in my neighborhood, within minutes I get an Amber Alert, and this thing goes crazy.
CORNISH: Yes.
ROHA: You remember when your phone, when you land somewhere and you have that? Why can't we develop something like that for these kind of instances, where no matter what you're doing?
CORNISH: In fairness, there -- there is a system in place. People were talking about the lack of cell service in this particular area and things like that.
ROCHA: That's true, too.
CORNISH: But to your point about the mudslinging, is that happening too soon? Ashley, I want to bring you in on that.
ASHLEY DAVIS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE OFFICIAL UNDER GEORGE W. BUSH: Yes. You know, I was watching this, and listen, there's been so much conversations about FEMA and federal response in general.
I'm a big believer that the states should have a lot of power over their states. But right now, what you're having -- and I lived through the Katrina days -- is you have the state and local, like towns, and then you have the state, and then you have the federal government. The thing about what Schumer said, which I just was surprised. It was
a little early. There's going to be investigations into this just because of the horrible loss. And I just can't imagine what they are dealing with.
But the difference between what Chuck Schumer did and Leader Jeffries. Jeffries came out and just said, Let's just have a pause, and let's grieve right now.
CORNISH: Yes.
DAVIS: And let's not make this political. And it's just too devastating.
CORNISH: So, our colleague Stephen Collinson at CNN was writing, as people in Texas demand answers, and he was saying, "Victims deserve accountability, untainted by politics. It's important to understand what went wrong in order to save lives in the future. But it's increasingly rare in an age of partisan media on the right and left for activists to wait."
Can you talk about kind of what you're seeing, Evan?
EVAN MCMORRIS-SANTORO, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, "NOTUS": I think one of the main problems here is we don't know what conversation that we're trying to have, right?
CORNISH: Yes.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: I've covered a bunch of these disasters before in the past. And when you go to one of these disaster sites, everybody there wants to help each other, and they want to know what happened. And they want to know how not to happen again. Right?
And this conversation, is that the conversation that we're trying to have? Are we having a conversation about preventing this or about learning about the sort of, you know, large climate issues that may have caused it, things like that?
No, we want to talk about which partisan side is doing better than the other partisan side. And both sides, by the way, are doing this.
CORNISH: Yes.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: So, this idea of who's -- who's leading, why where? And who's doing this and who's doing that? There is a huge movement of people who jump onto everything and try to make it into some kind of political lens immediately.
It's very different than talking about doing actual journalism of what things didn't happen, who -- you know, who weren't where they were supposed to be? Who didn't have the money that they needed to have?
This is exactly what reporters are supposed to do.
CORNISH: Yes. MCMORRIS-SANTORO: And the problem is, what happens now is that folks
who actually just don't actually care about the answer, but care about their side looking good, or the other side looking bad, they jump in, and they sort of take over the conversation.
CORNISH: OK.
MCMORRIS-SANTORO: And that's what happens.
CORNISH: We're going to be talking about more of this today, because there are a lot more questions on the ground that people are asking about what has happened here.
In the meantime, coming up on CNN THIS MORNING, another flood disaster, this time in North Carolina. We're going to tell you more about the devastation that came after a tropical storm rolled through.
[06:20:08]
And the on-again, off-again ceasefire talks between Israel and Gaza are back on again. Is there a possibility of a breakthrough?
And good morning to everybody waking up in Dallas.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CORNISH: A temporary ceasefire in Gaza may be near.
Israel and Hamas have now engaged in two days of indirect negotiations in Doha. The goal is a permanent ceasefire and a hostage release deal within 60 days.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is in Washington. During a sit-down with President Trump yesterday, Trump was asked if a two- state solution for the Palestinian people is on the table, and then he deferred to Netanyahu.
[06:25:05]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do you think that there can be a two-state solution that creates an independent Palestine?
TRUMP: I don't know. I'd ask Bibi that question. You have the greatest man in the world to answer that age-old question. Two-state. Go ahead. You give him your honest answer.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER: I think Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves, but none of the powers to threaten us. And that means that certain powers, like overall security, will always remain in our hands.
(END VIDEO CLIP) CORNISH: Joining me now to discuss is Ghaith al-Omari. He's a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He's also a former adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
And we'll come to that two-state solution in a second. I think you're familiar with those conversations.
But first, help us understand about how these negotiations work. We said they're indirect. Who is negotiating on behalf of Hamas?
GHAITH AL-OMARI, SENIOR FELLOW, WASHINGTON INSTITUTE FOR NEAR EASY POLICY: All right. So, in terms of the negotiations, because the U.S. And Israel don't recognize Hamas, they don't talk directly. They use the Qataris and the Egyptians as go-betweens.
Now, the big question, as you asked, who talks for Hamas? Because the ones who are negotiating are the Hamas political leadership based in Qatar. However, it's very questionable how much sway they have on the actual military leaders in Gaza.
Many of the military leaders, top leaders in Gaza, were killed. This is a good thing, but it also creates a breakdown in the chain of command.
And one of the biggest question is, if you can reach a deal in Qatar, can you implement it in Gaza? That remains to be seen.
CORNISH: And that implementation is obviously an issue. Israel wants Hamas disarmed; out of power. Hamas, of course, doesn't want to release any hostages unless it can somehow assure that it will survive this process.
It feels like that -- those two things are fundamentally at odds. What were you hearing in the conversation yesterday that made you think about this?
AL-OMARI: Actually, right now, there's no answer to this question. So, the way they're approaching it is, let's phase the -- the process.
Let's start with a 60-day ceasefire. Hope to create some momentum, not deal with these big issues, and hope that the release of some hostages, ten out of 20 living, ultimately will create momentum, will create a context in which the big questions can be resolved.
But there are no guarantees. We were there in January. We had a temporary ceasefire. It broke down in March, two -- two months later, because these questions were not answered.
A lot of heavy lifting will be needed to get the Israelis and Hamas to that point.
CORNISH: In the meantime, there's this specter of relocation is the word, is being thrown around. President Trump has called for the annexation of Gaza. They've also talked about development in the region.
And when they talked about a Palestinian relocation plan, you had Trump saying, well, let's see what -- you know, Netanyahu has to say.
What do you make of this exchange and the way that this keeps being raised?
AL-OMARI: This was first raised by Trump a few months ago. It was soundly rejected by the whole region. The Jordanians and the Egyptians, who were proposed without being consulted to be the location, said an absolute no.
The Arab countries, which are expected, ultimately, to pay and be part of the reconstruction of Gaza and dealing with this, said absolutely no. Europe said absolutely no.
So, it's, you know, interesting to talk about it in the White House, but it has no real resonance in real life.
CORNISH: What are you going to be listening for in the next week or two?
AL-OMARI: First of all, signs of is there a breakthrough in this first phase of the talk -- of the ceasefire?
CORNISH: Yes.
AL-OMARI: But more importantly, what is the region hearing? the Saudi defense minister was in the White House last week. How are the Saudis going to respond? Are the Egyptians?
So, the way the region approaches this, I think, will be key in terms of not only can we have a breakthrough in this first phase, but can we then move to the next and much more important and much more difficult phase of the negotiations?
CORNISH: OK, Ghaith Omari, thank you so much --
AL-OMARI: Thank you.
CORNISH: -- for explaining to us. We hope to have you back. He's at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.
All right. Ahead on CNN THIS MORNING, dozens still missing and feared dead in Texas as more victims ask why evacuation orders were not issued before the deadly flooding.
And wait until you hear who just got nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize. President Trump.
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